Demos: Voter Suppression Works

[muriel_volestrangler]

Since 2006, states across the country have implemented strict voter ID laws, which require photo identification at polling places. Extensive research has suggested that these laws are motivated by racism and partisanship. But many commentators (even at liberal-leaning outlets) have dismissed the impacts of these laws, despite clear evidence that they have disproportionate impacts on young people, people of color and low-income people. A new memo from Priorities USA and Civis Analytics provides evidence that voter ID laws successfully disenfranchised voters in 2016.

First, Civis and Priorities performed a simple analysis of how turnout changed in states that adopted voter ID laws between the 2012 and 2016 elections. As the table shows, states that adopted strict turnout laws (MS, VA and WI) saw their turnout drop, while states that did not saw an increase in turnout (this aligns with a similar GAO analysis of voter ID laws).

Civis and Priorities also find that these laws disproportionately harmed black voters, by examining how black turnout changed at the county level between 2012 and 2016. As the table shows, turnout out in counties with a high black population share dropped by 2.2 points in states where ID laws did not change, compared to a 5 point drop in states where a strict ID law was implemented.



http://www.demos.org/blog/5/9/17/voter-suppression-works

Via Charles Pierce, who's doing an excellent job, despite being limited to his laptop, recovering from gall bladder surgery.

[delisen]

1. Thanks for the information.

[Gothmog]

2. The GOP is the party of voter suppression and relies on voter suppression to win races

[Nitram]

3. Voter supression is a well-planned and effectively implemented Republican strategy to supress

the Democratic vote.