A federal lawsuit has been filed against Missouri’s new law that requires voters display photo identification to cast a ballot. The lawsuit, filed in the Western District Court of Missouri, claims the new law violates the US Constitution as well as federal voting laws. A host of groups as well as two individuals filed the lawsuit. Attorney David Becker with People for the American Way says the new law amounts to a poll tax, because it would require people to buy underlying documents to receive a free photo ID from the state. New federal rules require a birth certificate to get a driver’s license and require many married women to produce a marriage certificate to document their change of name. The lawsuit claims that one of the plaintiffs, Maria Frencher of Kansas City, faces insurmountable obstacles in acquiring the needed identification, even though she has been a registered voter for 13 years. The federal lawsuit comes even as a circuit judge is considering the arguments made in a state lawsuit filed against the law.
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