From AlterNet
By Art Levine

Missouri’s Republican-controlled legislature is rushing to pass one of the country’s most draconian voter ID requirements less than two weeks after the Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s similarly restrictive photo ID law — a law that’s best known for serving as a vital bulwark against nuns voting. Missouri trumps that: It now seems that the state that brought us the likes of GOP anti-voting fraud zealot “Thor” Hearne and became “Ground Zero” for GOP vote suppression schemes in 2006 could take the brass ring from Florida and Ohio as the state most hostile to its own voters’ rights.

There’s a good reason that the Republicans are moving so quickly to pass a proposed constitutional amendment that could thwart at least 240,000 Missouri citizens from voting in November. The state is a presidential battleground state where recent gubernatorial and Senate races have been decided by margins as little as 21,000 votes.

“If you exclude 240,000 people from the electorate, that is plenty to swing the election in Missouri,” says John Hickey, the executive director of the Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition (ProVote). He and other advocates are urging Missouri residents to contact their legislators to protest.

Last week, the House passed a resolution on a strict party-line vote that would place a constitutional amendment on the ballot demanding documentary requirements to vote. It is now up for debate in the state Senate and could go before voters as early as August. An amendment to the state constitution is necessary since the legislature’s 2006 voter ID was struck down by the Missouri Supreme Court.

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