Nonpartisan GAO: Voting restrictions reduce turnout, mostly hurt blacks and young voters
Whooda thunk it?
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/10/08/gao-study-finds-voter-id-laws-reduced-turnout-in-tennessee-kansas/
Turnout among African-American and younger voters suffers when states require photo identification at the polls, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office said Wednesday, publishing a study of voting in two states as the Supreme Court weighs whether Wisconsin can implement new ID requirements in next month’s elections.
The issue has broken along sharply partisan lines. Republicans have pushed for voter ID rules, saying they can prevent impostors from casting fraudulent ballots. Democrats contend such restrictions suppress elements of their base: poor, minority and young voters who are less likely to carry acceptable IDs.
The GAO report, requested by Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.) and other Senate Democrats, found voter ID rules reduced turnout by 1.9% to 3.2% over several elections in the two states selected for study, Kansas and Tennessee. Participation fell disproportionately further among voters age 23 and younger, voters who had been registered for less than one year, and African-American voters, the study found.
“A 2% effect from voter ID is pretty significant,” said Stanford law professor Nate Persily, former research director for the bipartisan Presidential Commission on Election Administration. “The magnitude is much larger than I would have thought.”
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