JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Two voting-rights groups have sued the state of Missouri in an attempt to block parts of a new law that restrict voter registration efforts and absentee voter outreach.
The League of Women Voters of Missouri and the Missouri State Conference of the NAACP sued the state in Cole County Circuit Court on Monday, arguing four provisions within a new elections law violate the state constitution.
The GOP-led Legislature and Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, signed off on House Bill 1878 this year, which also requires voters to show a photo ID before casting a regular ballot. The law is set to take effect Sunday.
The groups don’t challenge the voter photo ID provision, instead directing attention at four provisions the organizations say will chill protected speech.
“Individually and collectively, the Challenged Provisions chill and restrict Plaintiffs’ and other civic organizations’ — as well as their members, volunteers, and staff — constitutionally protected speech,” the lawsuit said.
The NAACP and League of Women Voters target a new rule banning paid solicitation of voter registration applications, a second requiring volunteers who attempt to sign up more than 10 voters to register with the state, a third saying volunteer solicitors must be Missouri voters, and a fourth provision blocking people from soliciting “a voter into obtaining an absentee ballot application.”
“Because of these provisions, the Missouri NAACP will have to stifle our voter registration and absentee voting activities — at the very time heading into the midterm elections, when the NAACP would be otherwise engaging these communities in registration and absentee voting,” said Nimrod Chapel, president of the Missouri State Conference of the NAACP, in a statement.
Chapel said voting-rights groups could challenge the photo ID requirements in a future lawsuit.
A news release by the plaintiffs said the law is “so vague that the ban on absentee ballot solicitation could be used to criminalize a volunteer who tells a voter that will be out of town on Election Day that they can vote absentee.”
Marilyn McLeod, president of Missouri’s League of Women Voters, said in June that parts of the law would be challenged.
The plaintiffs, represented by the Campaign Legal Center, American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri and the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition, asked the court to issue an injunction blocking enforcement of the challenged provisions.
A spokesman for Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, Missouri’s top election official, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
The legislation is House Bill 1878.
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