A lawsuit alleging that Missouri's new voter identification law was intended to make it harder for poor and minority residents to cast their ballots has been dismissed.
This week a Cole County Circuit Judge dismissed the suit filed in June by the ACLU and the Advancement Project on behalf of the Missouri NAACP and the League of Women Voters.
Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved a November 2016 ballot measure instituting voter ID. The law became effective June 1.
Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft says "common sense prevailed" in the ruling. He says the new law actually expands ballot access, and voters were not disenfranchised.
But Advancement Project attorney Denise Lieberman of St. Louis says opponents remain concerned about the law and are weighing their options in challenging it.
