Barriers at the Ballot Box: Do Stringent ID Requirements Disproportionately Suppress Minority Voter Turnout?

• In Event: Participation, Voting and Civil Rights in the United States

Abstract

A hot topic for discussion is strict voter ID laws, which mandate that a person who wishes to vote must produce an official government-issued ID. These laws have become politicized recently, and supporters of the legislation say these laws are essential to prevent voter fraud and other election-related corruption. Opponents of such measures often argue that they have the effect of suppressing turnout and political engagement among Black, Asian, and Latino voters. Analyzing those laws on the general and minority populations in the data taken from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) will be performed through regression tests. Despite past research examining support for and opposition to the assumption that these laws decrease voting rates, the analysis done in the following study shows a more nuanced answer. This study indicates there is no statistically significant negative association between strict ID laws and minority or overall turnout, suggesting that other aspects of socioeconomic status, including education and income, could have important effects on overall and minority turnout and also on overall political participation. To further illustrate gaps in voter turnout, the study highlights the importance of recording local effects at an individual level in both the short term and the long term during state and national elections.

Author

• Robert J Stevenish III, St. Lawrence University Political Science Student