St. Louis voters will be among the first to go to the polls under a new statewide photo-identification voting law, during a special election for an aldermanic seat in July.

But Missouri’s top election official is acknowledging the state doesn't have time to reach all voters who may want free IDs before that election.

“We won’t get free IDs to everyone who wants them before the St. Louis city special election,” Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a top Republican proponent of the controversial new law, said in an interview Wednesday.

On Thursday, he clarified that comment: "We don't know who those people are. I don't think we've had 15 people call up who need IDs." Anyone wants a free photo ID should contact his office, Ashcroft said.

Still, he batted back what he alleged is a campaign by the law’s opponents to discredit it, and he insisted that backup provisions in the law would allow every eligible voter to vote even if they don’t have IDs. “People are misleading the voters of the state about what this law said,” Ashcroft said, “and I think that’s despicable.”