Another bill would require voters to show photo identification at the polls, if a separate proposed constitutional amendment also is adopted on the November ballot.
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Governor Nixon also suffered a defeat when lawmakers overrode his veto of a bill requiring a government issued photo ID in order to cast a vote in the state.
The House voted 115-41 Wednesday to override the photo ID veto.
A spokesman for Nixon, who vetoed the bill in July, did not immediately return a call seeking comment after the vote, but the governor previously decried the law as disenfranchising voters. “Despite the best efforts of Michael Bloomberg and out-of-state gun control groups to defeat the override vote, their agenda was rejected”.
In all, the Republican dominated legislature overrode no less than five Nixon vetoes before adjourning around 10 p.m., cementing his legacy as the most overridden governor in the state’s history. Heading into Wednesday, lawmakers had overridden Nixon on 83 bills and budget expenditures over his two terms in office almost four times more overrides than the combined total for all other governors dating back to 1820 when Missouri was still a territory.
Nixon vetoed more than 20 measures this year, including ones already overridden this spring blocking pay raises for home-care workers and changing the state’s school funding requirements.
During debate Wednesday, sponsoring Republican Rep. Justin Alferman argued that the photo ID requirement would “protect our elections against fraud”.
The bill also removes the training requirement, but supporters said a free Internet course is available. And if the state budget doesn’t include money for such costs, the ID requirement would not take effect. They said Missouri law allows citizens to openly carry a weapon in public without a special permit, and this would merely allow them to put their jackets on.
“Putting additional and unwanted barriers between citizens and their ability to vote is wrong and detrimental to our system of government as a whole”, Nixon said in explaining his veto.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Wednesday marks the daylong (and possibly nightlong) veto session, in which the General Assembly can attempt to override 22 of Gov. Jay Nixon’s vetoes.
These two bills, dealing with voter ID and gun rights have garnered both statewide and national attention. The NRA says 30 states have laws or court precedents stating people have no duty to retreat from a threat anywhere they are lawfully present.
Meanwhile, about 150 people rallied with the Missouri chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America before also lobbying lawmakers.
Missouri lawmakers have overridden a veto of a sweeping gun measure which allows people to carry a concealed weapon without training or a permit.
Senator Scott Sifton (D-Affton) added, “We should not eliminate gun safety training requirements for concealed weapon permits”.
Supporters of the bill said it will make the state safer by allowing more residents to carry firearms in self-defense, while still banning certain criminals and mentally incompetent people from having a gun.
The legislation would require voters to show a photo ID starting in 2017, if a separate proposed constitutional amendment authorizing a photo ID mandate is approved on the November ballot.
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A Democratic state senator from St. Louis is refusing to stand while her colleagues recite the Pledge of Allegiance in the Missouri Capitol.
