JEFFERSON CITY, MO. (June 17, 2011) - Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed legislation Friday that could have required voters to show photo identification and created a no-excuses-needed period in which Missouri residents could have cast ballots before Election Day.
Nixon said he spiked the bill because it could have made it harder to vote for seniors and the disabled, whom he said are less likely to have a driver's license or other government-issued photo ID card.
"It is unacceptable to impede or discourage citizens from voting who have lawfully cast ballots their entire adult lives," Nixon, a Democrat, said in a veto message to the Republican-led Legislature.
A proposed constitutional amendment on photo IDs and early voting still is to appear on Missouri's 2012 ballot. But that measure only authorizes the separate enactment of state laws on the two topics; it does not require them.
Nixon had supported the early voting provision. But Missouri governors can only use a line-item veto on budget bills, meaning Nixon had to accept both the early voting and photo ID provisions or reject the entire bill. Democratic governors in Minnesota and Montana also vetoed Republican-backed bills last month that would have required voters to show photo ID.
