POLITICS | Fri Jun 9, 2017 | 6:06pm EDT

Civil rights groups sue Missouri to stop voter ID law

Civil rights groups have sued Missouri to prevent its new voter identification law from interfering with a local special election next month, saying the measure could disenfranchise voters.

The lawsuit seeks a court order blocking the law from remaining in effect during the July 11 special election for an alderman in St. Louis.

The lawsuit was filed on Thursday in the Cole County Circuit Court in Jefferson City by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Advancement Project on behalf of the NAACP and the League of Women Voters of Missouri.

Missouri has failed to provide necessary mandated funding for voter education, free voter IDs and birth certificates and training for poll workers since the new voting law came into effect on June 1, the ACLU said in the lawsuit.

"Voters were promised that this law was not about disenfranchising the most vulnerable in our state," said Tony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU of Missouri. "The state's lack of funding and implementation of this law tells another story."

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