This Was My Concern About Voting ID

This was my major concern about mandating voter identification, and that was the type of identification that would be required to prove who you are. The hospital that held my birth certificate burned down. It took about a year to get an official birth certificate for me. For years, I used my baptismal certificate as a substitute for my birth certificate. Now I have the certificate and a passport, which I plan on always keeping up to date. When my cousin tried to get her mother's, my great aunt's, birth certificate, there was confusion concerning her date of birth. My aunt wasn't sure and the census records had different dates of birth for her. (She was born in the south and our family tree researchers saw this first hand as well as different spellings of the same person's name).

The battle over voting rights will expand this week as lawmakers in Missouri are expected to support a proposed constitutional amendment to enable election officials to require proof of citizenship from anyone registering to vote.

The measure would allow far more rigorous demands than the voter ID requirement recently upheld by the Supreme Court, in which voters had to prove their identity with a government-issued card.

Sponsors of the amendment — which requires the approval of voters to go into effect, possibly in an August referendum — say it is part of an effort to prevent illegal immigrants from affecting the political process. Critics say the measure could lead to the disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of legal residents who would find it difficult to prove their citizenship.

Voting experts say the Missouri amendment represents the next logical step for those who have supported stronger voter ID requirements and the next battleground in how elections are conducted. Similar measures requiring proof of citizenship are being considered in at least 19 state legislatures. Bills in Florida, Kansas, Oklahoma and South Carolina have strong support. But only in Missouri does the requirement have a chance of taking effect before the presidential election.

There should be a grandfather clause for this. I don't know what the range should be, but I bet most native born Americans couldn't prove their citizenship status.

Hat tip: P6