Midwest
Missouri law requiring photo ID to vote remains intact: 'Huge win for election security'
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said a state law requiring a photo ID to vote being upheld in court is a “huge win for election security.”
“Missouri proved today how to handle radical activists that come into a state with secure elections and try to undermine them through the legal process,” Bailey said in an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital.
Bailey added that this was a huge victory for the Show Me State.
“We went to court, we put on the evidence, and radical activists working to undermine our elections FAILED. This is a HUGE win for election security,” Bailey said in a post on X.
COURT UPHOLDS RED STATE’S BAN ON TRANS SURGERIES, TREATMENTS FOR MINORS
Andrew Bailey, Missouri’s attorney general, called the court win over photo ID to vote a “huge win for election security.” (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Elon Musk also shared his approval and praise for Missouri’s court ruling.
“Congratulations AG Bailey! Now we need this nationwide,” Musk wrote in a post on X.
The Missouri court’s decision to uphold the voter ID law came after heavy criticism from groups arguing that such requirements could disenfranchise voters.
However, Bailey’s office successfully presented evidence supporting the law’s necessity and effectiveness in maintaining the integrity of the voting process. The court’s ruling confirmed that the voter ID law does not impose a burden on voters.
Missouri also provides free non-driver’s licenses for voting for those who do not already have a driver’s license or have a current license. The health department’s Bureau of Vital Records provides free birth certificates to those seeking their first non-driver’s license in order to vote if the applicant does not have a current driver’s license.
PENNSYLVANIA DEM GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO SIDES WITH STATE SUPREME COURT RULING NOT TO COUNT CERTAIN MAIL-IN BALLOTS
Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem ruled Monday that a Missouri law requiring a photo ID to vote would remain intact. (Getty Images)
“There is not a severe burden on the right to vote as the State has gone to great lengths to help voters obtain IDs,” Bailey wrote in a previous court brief.
In October 2022, Cole County Presiding Judge Jon Beetem had already rejected a lawsuit brought by the Missouri League of Women Voters, NAACP and two voters challenging a law passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature making it mandatory that voters show photo identification to cast a regular ballot. Under the 2022 law, people with a valid government-issued photo ID are still able to submit provisional ballots, which will be counted if they return later that day with a photo ID or if election officials verify their signatures.
A Missouri court decided to uphold the state’s voter ID law, something Andrew Bailey fought for. (Vanessa Abbitt/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Republicans said the goal of the 2022 law was to deter voter fraud, but the plaintiffs in the case argued the legislation placed unconstitutional hurdles on voting, suppressing turnout.
Before the 2022 midterm elections, it was acceptable for Missourians to present a voter registration card, a student identification card, a bank statement or utility bill or a valid driver’s license to cast their ballots in the state.
The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that 36 states request or require identification to vote, of which at least 20 ask for a photo ID.
Other Republican-led states are moving in the same direction as Missouri, which could serve as the blueprint for national policy.
“I’m proud that Missouri will continue to lead the nation in defense of election security,” Bailey said.
Critics argue that such requirements are an overreaction that could disenfranchise eligible voters.
Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Stepheny Price is writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. Story tips and ideas can be sent to stepheny.price@fox.com.
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South Dakota
Work, housing and staffing: How South Dakota’s corrections chief aims to keep inmates from returning
SIOUX FALLS – South Dakota’s repeat offense rate for people who leave prison can return to the low point it saw a a dozen years ago, the state’s corrections secretary said Tuesday.
Nick Lamb, now six months into his role atop the Department of Corrections, laid out the agency’s plan Tuesday at the Correctional Rehabilitation Task Force at its meeting in Sioux Falls. The plan includes work release programs, residential housing for inmates and a top-to-bottom restructuring of how the department operates.
Recidivism measures how many inmates return to prison within three years of their release. The figure for South Dakota stood at
50%
in the most recent data, which was based on the performance of inmates released in 2021.
South Dakota’s lowest recidivism rate in the last two decades was 39% in 2014.
“We’ll get back there,” Lamb said Tuesday.
Lamb told reporters after the meeting he wants “to start getting in the business of closing prisons” during his tenure.
“Our population is too high for our state,” Lamb said. “We need to get our population down, but we’ve got to give the offenders the tools they need that they haven’t always had.”
Several recommendations presented on Tuesday, by Lamb and other criminal justice experts, will require more staff and funding.
State Rep. John Hughes, R-Sioux Falls, worries that the Legislature’s budget-setting committee will balk at new spending.
“My concern is that we put all these elaborate proposals together, then when we get to appropriations we’re going to hit the wall,” Hughes said.
Inmates return to work release
Under Lamb’s predecessor, Kellie Wasko, pay for inmate work performed outside the prison walls
was increased to minimum wage
. After that policy change, fewer communities and organizations contracted inmate workers for community service jobs.
Rep. Tim Reisch, R-Howard, said most of the roughly 250 minimum-security prisoners he oversaw during his tenure as corrections secretary participated in work release.
“They got up and they all had jobs. They were used to getting out of bed, going to work, getting in a habit of that,” Reisch said.
When he toured the prison last year, fewer than 20 were working, he said.
Lamb has cut inmate wages below minimum wage since he started.
“We reached out to a lot of these communities, basically asking if they need help,” Lamb said. “We lowered the wage, which upset some people, but we need them out working.”
This summer, inmates will work at Sioux Falls parks and at its regional landfill, and they’ll prepare the fairgrounds in Huron for the State Fairgrounds in August. They’ll also help out during Riverboat Days in Yankton, and pitch in on tournament preparation for the National Field Archery Association.
Statewide residential facilities planned
Lamb also wants to establish a residential corrections program. He shared a presentation showing how such a program
operated in Iowa
, where he served as deputy director of institutional operations for the Iowa Department of Corrections before his move to South Dakota.
In Iowa, most residential facilities were filled with people on probation, parole or work release. He envisions a similar program in South Dakota, with housing outside of traditional prison settings designed to help transition back into the community, but he hasn’t finalized details or a timeline.
“We’re going to try it,” Lamb said. “I’ll be honest, I haven’t talked to the lieutenant governor or anybody else about it, but we need to try it. It works.”
The program has been in Iowa for decades. Iowa’s three-year recidivism rate peaked at 38.9% in 2019 and has since fallen to 32.8%, based on the
latest data available
.
“I’m not trying to throw you a sales pitch,” Lamb said, but residential programming is “a good idea.”
Lamb said he doesn’t want to replace programs like the one run by the Sioux Falls-based nonprofit St. Francis House, but to add to it.
St. Francis House doesn’t cap how long residents can stay and limits rent to $250 a month. Lamb said a state-run program would include a time limit and higher rent.
A lack of “felon-friendly housing” is a major driver of recidivism, said Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken, who’s leaving his position soon after two terms in office. The problem won’t improve without government involvement, he added.
“If the state ever chooses to invest in St. Francis House programming, it’s money well spent,” TenHaken said.
Justice Center recommendations
The percentage of inmates who got rehabilitative programming increased from 27%to 44% between 2023 and 2025, according to a report presented Tuesday by the Council for State Governments Justice Center.
The national nonprofit was contracted to analyze the state’s prison system and help guide the task force’s work.
Despite the gains in programming, the group reported, 46% of inmates released in 2025 received none. Access was also limited by where inmates were held, due to space and staffing restrictions.
The justice center recommended several changes, including:
- Creating a rehabilitation and reentry division and hiring several new positions.
- Creating a centralized waitlist for programs.
- Streamlining the program catalog to reduce overlap and fill gaps.
- Sequencing programming to cover an inmate’s entire stay, rather than stacking programs in the last few months of their sentence.
- Creating a dedicated parole violation program track.
Many of those recommendations hinge on hiring and retaining adequate staff — one of the department’s most significant challenges, according to the group.
Sara Friedman, program director with the Justice Center, said her team consistently heard in interviews that the department tends to shift employees around when attempting new initiatives, rather than hiring. That creates gaps for inmates seeking programming.
Sometimes, for example, shifting staffing patterns will leave facilities without enough security staff to transport inmates to classrooms.
“Technically, you’re fully staffed, but you’re fully staffed so thinly that the moment one thing goes wrong, the waterfall effect is people are not getting their rehabilitative services,” Friedman said.
Lamb told South Dakota Searchlight after the presentation that he wasn’t surprised by the staffing recommendations. The department lacks adequate staff to backfill for sick or vacationing employees, he said, though he didn’t say how many more employees would need to be hired to address the issue.
The department is already working to create the new rehabilitation and reentry division and centralize its scheduling.
The task force plans to meet two more times before it’ll finalize its recommendations for the Legislature ahead of the next session, which starts in January.
— This story was originally published on southdakotasearchlight.com.
Wisconsin
Baboucarr Ann’s commitment pushes Wisconsin into nation’s top three
Baboucarr Ann’s commitment to the Wisconsin Badgers has given the No. 2-ranked class in the entire nation, according to 247Sports.
Greg Gard got off to a hot start when he landed Jalen Brown, but now, Ann’s commitment has taken this team to the next level.
Both Ann and Brown are four-star recruits, and each are among the top players, if not the very best in their own state.
Ann, a Minnesota native, is officially listed as the No. 1 player in his state. As for Brown, he’s listed as the No. 5 player in Wisconsin.
To no surprise, both Ann and Brown are top-100-ranked players. Jack Thelen, another Minnesota native, is Gard’s third commitment, the No. 168 overall ranked player.
Together, Ann, Brown, and Thelen cover seemingly every area on the court. Brown is listed as a complete guard, while Ann is a small forward, and Thelen stands 7-foot-1 and could be this team’s next premier center.
For what it’s worth, Thelen is the No. 3-ranked player in Minnesota and is the No. 16 center in the class of 2027.
Contact/Follow @TheBadgersWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin Badgers news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Jordon Lawrenz on X @jordonlaw_pxp.
Detroit, MI
No. 23 overall pick in the 2026 NHL draft | Detroit Red Wings
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