WASHINGTON (AP) — States that toughened their voter identification laws saw steeper drops in election turnout than those that did not, with disproportionate falloffs among black and younger voters, a nonpartisan congressional study released Wednesday concluded.
As of June, 33 states have enacted laws obligating voters to show a photo ID at the polls, the study said. Republicans who have pushed the legislation say the requirement will reduce fraud, but Democrats insist the laws are a GOP effort to reduce Democratic turnout on Election Day.
The report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative agency, was released less than a month from elections that will determine which party controls Congress.
The office compared election turnout in Kansas and Tennessee — which tightened voter ID requirements between the 2008 and 2012 elections — to voting in four states that didn’t change their identification requirements.
It estimated that reductions in voter turnout were about 2 percent greater in Kansas and from 2 to 3 percent steeper in Tennessee than they were in the other states examined. The four other states, which did not make their voter ID laws stricter, were Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, and Maine.
“GAO’s analysis suggests that the turnout decreases in Kansas and Tennessee beyond decreases in the comparison states were attributable to changes in those two states’ voter ID requirements,” the report said.
The study cautioned that the results from Kansas and Tennessee don’t necessarily apply to other states with stricter ID laws. It also found that of 10 other studies that mostly focused on voting before 2008, five found no significant impact from voter ID laws, four found decreases and one found an increase.
The report said that in Kansas and Tennessee, reduced voter turnout was sharper among people aged 18 to 23 than among those from 44 to 53. The drop was also more pronounced among blacks than whites, Hispanics or Asians and was greater among newly registered voters than those registered at least 20 years.
Estimated falloff among black voters was nearly 4 percent greater than it was among whites in Kansas, and almost 2 percent larger among blacks than for whites in Tennessee, the report said.
Young people and blacks generally tend to support Democratic candidates.
A group of Democratic senators including Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Vermont independent Sen. Bernard Sanders requested the study and said Wednesday that it confirmed their arguments and reaffirmed the need to pass legislation making it harder to curb voting.
“This study confirms the real impact of Republican efforts to limit access to the ballot box. Playing politics with the right to vote is a shameful practice,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Republican officials did not immediately provide comments when they were asked for reaction by email.
The report also:
—Examined 10 other studies that found that the portion of registered voters with driver’s licenses or state ID’s ranged from 84 percent to 95 percent. In seven of the studies, blacks had a lower rate of ID ownership than whites;
—Found that in 17 states, the costs of acquiring the required ID’s ranged from $14.50 to $58.50;
—Evaluated multiple studies that detected few instances of in-person voter fraud, but said it is difficult to gather data that would produce a reliable overview of the problem.
“Voter ID Laws Cut Turnout by Blacks, Young.”
Mission accomplished.
Playing politics with the right to vote is about as un-patriotic and un-American as you can get.
I have spoken with people who defend this approach saying “there is so much fraud without this”. These lies and twisting of the truth are a cancer that have spread into their brains and destroyed their ability to think.
A Nate Silver analysis (in 2012, I think) pooh-poohed the impact of Voter ID and other restrictions. These numbers seem to indicate that impact is much more significant than he concluded.
This canard by the GOPig Righties was the proverbial “solution for which there was NO problem.”
It was naked politics, pure and simple, and the bottomfeeding Cons and Baggers, who see themselves as ‘super patriots,’ have with this kind of in-your-face voter suppression spit in the faces of all the people in this country’s history who have fought and died for the very right these political hacks have sought to take away from so many. Breathtaking and obvious hypocrisy by that diminishing GOP cult.
Our society is highly mobile and highly technological. It’s ridiculous that we don’t have a federal ID card which would eliminate the requirement for most other forms of identification.