While we’re waiting for tonight’s results here is some incredibly important and pretty depressing information. Now that voter ID laws have been passed in the majority of US states since 2008, we now have the first study looking at a large sample of validated voting data to see whether these laws actually reduce minority voter turnout. Logic and some historical studies have made this a pretty strong assumption. But this study basically proves it. And the “success” of these laws at reducing the level of African-American and Latino voting is bigger than I imagined.
One nugget …
In general elections, states with strict photo ID laws show a Latino turnout 10.3 points lower than in states without them. The law also affected turnout in primary elections, where Latino turnout decreased by 6.3 points and Black turnout by 1.6 points.
Here are the highlights from the study.
