The recently elected state president of the NAACP said the defeat of voter ID is his top priority as he begins his term.
Nimrod Chapel Jr. spoke Monday at the annual Jefferson City NAACP Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer Breakfast and Founders Day at Quinn Chapel AME Church.
He said the measures that were passed out of the Missouri House Election Committee were "nothing more than a poll tax, which has been found illegal."
Two measures requiring a photo ID to vote are heading to the floor of the Missouri House of Representatives.
A House committee on Thursday approved a bill and a proposed constitutional amendment tightening the requirements to vote, two days after another committee endorsed them. Republicans on both committees prevailed on straight party-line votes.
"No one in the room testified in favor of the measures," Chapel said. "There's only been one case (of voter fraud) here. You have a better chance of winning Powerball than finding voter fraud."
The constitutional amendment would require voter approval. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that requiring a photo ID to vote was unconstitutional.
Photo ID requirements wouldn't go into effect unless the state sets aside money to pay for the documents required for an ID, such as a person's birth certificate. That could cost as much as $17 million over the next three fiscal years.
Republicans say they hope to vote on the measures this week.
"If we lose the right to vote we will back slide, and we can't let that happen," Chapel said. "So when this measure goes to the polls we will be out in force. This could affect as many as 250,000 in Missouri."