How to obtain a free Missouri voter ID

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) - Missouri voters who do not currently have a photo ID can receive one for free. Missouri’s voter ID law went into effect in 2022, requiring voters to provide a photo ID, like a driver’s license, at the polls before they cast their ballot.

Some argued the law would prevent eligible voters from casting their ballots due to a lack of ID and the necessary documents to obtain one.

You can’t currently possess an ID to be part of this program. You will need to contact the Missouri Secretary of State’s office. They will walk you through the documents you need to obtain the ID. They will help determine if you already have the necessary documentation. If you were born or married in Missouri, the Secretary of State’s office will look those up and provide you with those documents free of charge. If you need documents from another state, they can get those for you too.

“If they need that birth certificate from New York or that divorce decree from Georgia, we can get that for free for them also,” says Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft. “We can’t just get IDs for people without them talking to us. We’re going to need their permission to get the underlying documents, but we have people whose job it is to do that for Missourians.”

Ashcroft says Missouri passed the Voter ID law to protect the integrity of elections.

“It makes it harder for people to cheat,” says Ashcroft. “It gives more people a sense of security for their elections. I think that what we should be striving to do with elections is to make sure we have accessibility. And we did this by making sure that as long as you’re registered, you can vote. We should have security. So getting more people to prove who they are with a government-issued photo ID gets us better security, and it gives us more credibility.”

If you need an ID, the Missouri Secretary of State’s office recommends calling sooner rather than later since they see an increase in people requesting assistance during election season. Also, it could take several weeks for its office to obtain all the necessary documents to issue an ID. If you are registered to vote and don’t have an ID on election day, you can still vote with a provisional ballot.

The Free ID program is funded through the general revenue budget. For more information, CLICK HERE.

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