Republican-backed voter suppression legislation will harm minorities, Black Caucus says

JEFFERSON CITY — At the State Capitol on Tuesday, members of the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus and House Democratic leadership held a news conference to discuss voter suppression legislation and other Republican-backed measures that would disproportionately harm minority communities.

House Minority Leader Rep. Crystal Quade, D- Springfield, opened up the press conference. She said one of the more disturbing trends among Republicans this session has been their "eagerness to enact legislation that will disproportionately harm black Missourians and other minorities."

No one, not even Republicans, if they're being honest, really believe that the push for a strict voter ID law and other voting restrictions are intended to combat voter fraud.

The reality is such measures are intended to combat voting by minority groups that don't support Republicans, what makes the attack on voting rights even more remarkable is Republicans have proven over the last several election cycles that they don't need to cheat to win in Missouri.

So the fact that they're pushing voter suppression laws anyway points to something deeper that hostility also is evident in bills seeking to make it harder than it already is to hold bad actors and law enforcement accountable for illegal or unconstitutional actions. After years of protests over police brutality legislation such as this will only throw gasoline on the fire of racial injustice and do nothing to distinguish it.

The House Democrats stand with our colleagues in the Black Caucus in opposing legislation that moves Missouri towards its dark past rather than trying to create a better future.

Black Caucus chair Rep. Ashley Bland Manlove said House Republicans have put another barrier between voters and the ballot box. She said House Bill 334, sponsored by Rep. John Simmons, R- Washington, makes it more difficult for Missourians to vote, instead of pushing measures that would act actually encourage democracy.

This bill creates second-class votes and second-class voters. Missouri Supreme Court has consistently voted down voter ID laws, and for good reason. Photo voter registration ID discriminates against ethnic minorities and hurts elderly voters that may not be able to actually access the documents needed for certification initiative petition and attach and amendments moving through the House would make it immensely more difficult for direct democracy efforts to be placed in Missouri.

Currently, initiative petitions need to gather signatures from 8 percent of illegal registered voters, and two-thirds, that's six out of eight of Missouri's congressional district to get on the ballot if it's amending the constitution and 5 percent if it's amending statute.

Manlove said some of the resolutions presented in the previous weeks would increase the percentage of legal voters required. She said others would also make it so the 8 percent threshold would need to be met in all eight congressional districts, not just two-thirds.

The main argument by Republicans is that our Constitution and the initial petition process are too easy, which reveals that they believe it should be harder for the public to access our laws and the Constitution. The bottom line is, Republicans here and nationally, have worked hard to consolidate their power to the best of their abilities, and they want sole control over lawmaking.

This is very reminiscent of the poll taxes that provided barriers to the working and poor classes of African Americans, literacy tests that barred African Americans, who had not been taught to read by their white masters, and grandfather clauses that said that a man can only vote if his ancestor had been able to vote, explicitly, cutting black Africans, whose ancestors had been enslaved, out of the democratic process.

While individuals may have been able to meet one or more of these requirements they were designed to act in concert so that all of those restrictions were difficult to meet continuously.

Manlove said they're excited about House Resolution 1, which would change voting federally, which she said would eliminate dealing with discriminatory practices.

Manlove listed the following things that House Resolution 1 would implement, that Missouri currently doesn't have:

• Solidify rights to vote while on probation and parole. Missouri has it that you can vote once you're off of papers.
• Online voter registration, which Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has implemented.
• Automatic voter registration
• Same-day registration
• Early voting
• Prohibits strict photo ID mandates
• Codifies voting by mail
• Bans out of precinct provisional ballots
• Makes Election Day a holiday
• Codifies non-partisan redistricting commission

Manlove said online voter registration is the only thing available and she said there's much work to be done.