Kit Bond testified at a Capitol Hill hearing on Wednesday about his favorite suffragist pooch — Ritzy Meckler, the Springer Spaniel who famously was registered to vote in St. Louis.

(Ritzy never cast a vote, and her identity was uncovered by city Election Board workers.)

Still, in the wake of the 2000 election debacle in St. Louis, Ritzy became Bond’s own personal mascot for reform.

At a Senate hearing yesterday, Bond pushed photo ID requirements for voters, showing the committee a picture of him and Ritzy together.

“I’m the one on the right,” Bond quipped.

Bond, a Republican, told the committee what he thought was a “coordinated attempt to keep polls open late in the election day,” in heavily-Democratic St. Louis, both in 2000 and 1972, when Bond was on the ballot for governor.

“We have had a long and undistinguished career of manipulated elections in Missouri,” Bond said.

He focused mostly on St. Louis, quoting his “good friend” Charles Quincy Troupe, an alderman and former state rep.

Troupe, Bond recalled, said “in close elections, everybody knows in St. Louis you’ve got to ‘beat the cheat to win.’”

“That’s a sad commentary on our Democracy,” Bond offered.

The entire hearing, which included testimony from Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, can be viewed on the committee’s Web site.

Ritzy, the voting dog, with her toy trout