Surprise, Surprise! They're Lying to You About Voter ID Laws
Supporters of strict voter identification laws argue that they are needed to prevent voter fraud and that they aren't designed to suppress anyone's vote. We've already known for quite a while that voter fraud is largely a myth. Research from the 2014 election shows that voter ID laws suppress the votes of Democrats at more than twice the rate the laws block Republican voters. Are you shocked?
The new study, conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, found that strict voter ID laws cause an 8.8% reduction in Democratic Party turnout while only reducing Republican turnout by 3.6%. It goes deeper. According to the report:
The analysis shows that strict identification laws have a differentially negative impact on the turnout of Hispanics, Blacks, Asian-Americans, and multi-racial Americans in primaries and general elections. We also find that voter ID laws skew democracy toward those on the political right.
Digging deeper, the researchers found that voter participation for self-identified Hispanics, African Americans, Asian Americans and mixed-race individuals dropped 4.7% in general elections and 5.7% in primaries where strict voter ID laws are in place. A similar effect was found with ideology, with strict ID laws driving down liberal turnout significantly more than conservative turnout.
Read the full study.
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This has been reposted from the AFL-CIO.
