Voter ID Laws Research Articles

Shaping the Narrative: Examining News Coverage of Voter ID Laws in the United States

ABSTRACT This study is the first to examine US news coverage of voter ID laws. Voter ID requirements are central to ongoing political debates about voting procedures. Despite rare cases of voter fraud by impersonation and the strong polarization over voter ID among partisan elites, there is a surprising broad bipartisan support for voter ID among the American public. Using a range of inductive computational content analysis methods, we analyse news coverage of voter ID requirements from 2013 to 2023. We find coverage differs by outlets political leaning and demonstrate a link between news media discourse and elite framing on the issue. Donald Trump’s voter fraud allegations, however, appear to have substantially shaped left-leaning media coverage from 2016, raising concerns around whether this might have helped amplify electoral conspiracies, instead of offering the public alternative ways of thinking about voter ID laws.

Who Participates in Local Elections? Evidence From Current Population Survey

Local elections have had historically low participation rates in the United States. Knowing who participates in local elections is important because it will allow democracy scholars to better understand whose interests are being represented in local governing bodies and explain how and why local governing bodies make the decisions they do. I use binary logistic regression analysis on survey responses from the U.S. Census Bureau’s September 2021 Current Population Survey Volunteering and Civic Life Supplement to analyze self-reported participation regarding demographic characteristics and state-level election policies. This paper finds that age, gender, education, race, homeownership, and family income are all important predictors of participation in local elections. Likewise, this paper finds that all mail elections and Same Day Registration have strong, statistically significant effects on local-level voter turnout, voter ID laws have a counterintuitive effect, the length of early voting periods has a small but statistically significant effect, and Automatic Voter Registration and direct democracy processes have no statistically significant effects on participation in local elections.

Voting While Trans: How Voter ID Laws Unconstitutionally Compel the Speech of Trans Voters

Thirty-five states currently request or require identification documents for in-person voting, and these requirements uniquely impact transgender voters. Of the more than 697,800 voting-eligible trans people living in states that conduct primarily in-person elections, almost half (43 percent) lack documents that correctly reflect their name or gender. When an ID does not align with a trans voter’s gender presentation, the voter may be disenfranchised—either because a poll worker denies them the right to cast a ballot or because the voter ID requirement chills their participation in the first place. Further, when a trans voter presents an ID that does not align with their gender presentation, they effectively out themselves. For both nonpassing and cispassing trans voters, presenting an ID that does not align with their gender identity compels them to express a message about their identity that they do not personally believe. In response to these problems for trans voters, this Note offers a novel legal avenue through which to challenge voter ID laws, arguing that voter-ID requirements as applied to trans voters constitute compelled speech in violation of the First Amendment.

Democracy in the Valley: Impacts of Voter ID Laws in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley

ABSTRACT: While we celebrate the monumental achievements of American democracy since its inception, we should also acknowledge that the Founding Fathers purposefully excluded a segment of the population from participating in the new republic. What has come to be known as “voter suppression” is a political strategy to discourage those qualified to vote from participating in the democratic process. For example, white supremacists used direct violence, literacy tests, and poll taxes to keep the former enslaved and their descendants from voting in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In Texas, the integrity of the voting process came under intense scrutiny after the 2008 presidential cycle. Even though voter fraud and irregularities were generally unproven, state officials still passed new voter identification laws, which took effect in 2013. Critics of the new laws claim they are merely a voter suppression act aimed at the state’s growing Hispanic population. Therefore, this case study examines the predominantly Hispanic region of Texas, known as the Rio Grande Valley, to determine if such voter suppression acts successfully reduced voter participation during the national elections between 2012 and 2022.

Examining the Effects of Perceptions of Voter Suppression and Voter Fraud on Support for Voter Identification Laws in the United States

Democracy is fundamentally grounded in the people's right to vote, but what happens when the same mechanisms meant to protect the electoral process become barriers? This study examined the relationship between perceptions of voter suppression and voter fraud and support for voter restrictions, such as requiring identification to vote. The study utilized data from the American National Election Studies 2020 Times Series Study, examining a sample of 5,264 voters. Results revealed that voter support for voter ID laws depends on their perceptions of voter integrity and suppression. The more confidence voters have in the integrity of elections and the more they believe in voter suppression, the less likely they are to support voter identification requirements. Other demographic factors are considered.

Voting While Trans: How Voter ID Laws Unconstitutionally Compel the Speech of Trans Voters

Voting While Trans: How Voter ID Laws Unconstitutionally Compel the Speech of Trans Voters

The effects of journalistic intervention and falsely balanced reporting on support for voter ID law

ABSTRACT Does the way journalists report on electoral fraud affect Americans’ support for voter ID laws? Drawing on an original survey experiment, we show that exposure to reporting on voter fraud that contains weight-of-evidence information and factual corrections reduces support for voter ID laws. The results of a causal mediation analysis show that this effect is mediated by beliefs about the severity of voter fraud. Further, we find that news source attribution does not moderate this effect.

Exclusionary Citizenship: Public Punitiveness and Support for Voting Restrictions

Much scholarship has discussed how the expansion of the carceral state in the U.S. has consequences for other facets of the democracy. Specifically, felony disenfranchisement laws create a class of “carceral citizens” comprised disproportionately of racially minoritized individuals, and voter ID laws likewise closely mirror racialized segregation efforts that parallel the effects of justice system policies. Despite these clear theoretical linkages, little research has examined whether the anti-welfarism, anti-immigrant attitudes, and symbolic racism which fuel public punitiveness similarly increase support for voting restrictions. Further, it is unknown whether punitiveness itself intervenes in these relationships. Analyses of data from the 2020 American National Election Survey (N = 7,453) reveal considerable overlap between the sources of both punitiveness and voting restriction policies, and punitiveness sets an indirect path through which these social sensibilities influence support for voting restrictions. Further, party-specific analyses reveal that these associations generally are stronger for Democrats than Republicans.

Who is mobilized to vote by information about voter ID laws?

ABSTRACT Advocacy groups often work to educate the public about voting requirements following changes to election laws. These outreach efforts have the potential to mobilize partisan groups who consider the laws a threat to their party’s electoral prospects. In the 2017 Virginia election, we partnered with an advocacy organization to conduct a field experiment evaluating the effects of the organization’s outreach campaign. We randomized which registered voters were mailed one of three informational postcards providing details about voter identification requirements in place at the time in Virginia. Overall, the postcards had minimal effects on turnout compared to the no-contact control group. However, each version of the postcards significantly increased turnout among subgroups based on their underlying partisanship and/or vote-propensity. Democrats were significantly mobilized by postcards highlighting the potentially disproportionate impact of ID laws on demographic groups that traditionally support the Democratic Party, with approximately a two percentage point increase in turnout overall, and even higher increases among high vote-propensity Democrats. A simple, informational postcard, on the other hand, elevated turnout among low vote-propensity recipients by two percentage points. The postcard treatments did not significantly increase turnout among Republicans or mid vote-propensity registrants of either party.

'How the Sausage Gets Made': Voter ID and Deliberative Democracy

I was in “the room where it happens” when Kentucky enacted a new photo ID law for voting. And I lived to tell the tale. This Article recounts the evolution of Kentucky’s voter ID law, which could have been one of the strictest ID laws in the country but ultimately became one of the mildest. The inside story of how that occurred is itself interesting, but the Article also relates it to a theory of deliberative democracy, or a legislative process that benefits from debate, negotiation, and compromise from various voices, making the final enactment more legitimate. The Article traces the history of the voter ID law, explaining the significant substantive changes that occurred during the legislative process. Next, the Article analyzes the litigation over the bill, which was focused on its implementation during the pandemic and not about the substance of the new law—showing that even opponents accepted its main substantive components. Finally, the Article relates the Kentucky story to a legislative theory of deliberative democracy. The Kentucky process mostly worked because, even though Republicans had the votes to pass the most stringent law possible, they instead moderated in response to opposition from Democrats and advocacy organizations. That moderation made the process more legitimate and created a better substantive outcome. The Article suggests that, to encourage a stronger legislative process, courts could give slightly more deference to a state that passes an election law with indicia of deliberative democracy. Voter ID laws are unnecessary: they do not root out any fraud that exists and can disenfranchise voters. But the Kentucky experience shows that not all voter ID laws are created equal. If the political reality meant that a new voter ID law was inevitable, the Kentucky version—with its various exceptions and fail-safe protections—is about as good as one can expect. Further, its passage opened the door to other pro-voter reforms. Perhaps the Kentucky model—and the deliberative democracy process it exhibits—can lower the temperature in other states.

Suppressing Black Votes: A Historical Case Study of Voting Restrictions in Louisiana

Southern states have used a variety of methods to disenfranchise African American voters. Empirical data on the effectiveness of these measures is rare. We present a unique data source from Louisiana that allows us to empirically document voter registration rates from the end of Reconstruction to the present. Using basic time series data, we document how voter registration rates changed over time in response to state restrictions. We then conduct a second analysis, which focuses on Louisiana’s use of the Understanding Clause to reduce voter registration among Blacks. We show that in parishes that used the Understanding Clause, Black registration rates dropped by nearly 30 percentage points, with little effect on white registration. The findings of this paper have important implications for understanding the potential for discrimination in the enforcement of modern, ostensibly nonracial, voter eligibility requirements, such as voter ID laws, which grant substantial discretion to local officials in determining voter eligibility.

The Political Benefits of Voter ID Lawsuits

In one of the most pronounced developments in American political and election law over the past two decades, voter ID laws have developed from an insipid topic of interest only to policy wonks and local government enthusiasts into one of the most contentious and hot-button issues in American politics. To date, the Democratic party — either directly as plaintiffs or indirectly via its attorneys — have filed nearly a dozen lawsuits challenging voter ID laws across the United States, arguing such laws disproportionately burden minority voters. However, these lawsuits are puzzling considering the minimal impact these laws have, as social science scientists have yet to conclude these laws have a racially disparate impact. Furthermore, this litigation is costly and limited: it is time-consuming, expensive, ineffective, and risky. Why Democrats continue to litigate voter ID laws, in light of these costs and limitations, is the central inquiry of this Essay. To answer it, this Essay applies emerging sociolegal theories that reveal the benefits litigation engenders unto the litigating party, thus explaining the Democratic penchant for litigating voter ID laws.

Legacies of Segregation and Disenfranchisement: The Road from <em>Plessy</em> to <em>Frank</em> and Voter ID Laws in the United States

This article explores how voter ID laws further the dismantling of voting rights and the promises of full political engagement for racial minorities, especially African Americans. The authors highlight the racial politics that inform the emergence of these laws, and the racial intent and impact these laws have in diluting minority voting access and therefore political power. It begins with a short historical overview of voting rights since the eradication of slavery, then offers background on the current legal climate in which voter ID laws are situated. The essay concludes with an analysis of Frank v. Walker as a case study exposing the intent and impact of voter ID laws.

Comparison of Perception of 2020 Election Security Threats Between Young and Old Voters

Elections constitute the bedrock of a democratically governed society. Due to the long time it has historically taken to ensure equal social participation, the integrity of elections needs to be particularly protected to make every vote count. The democratic process itself has been subject to manipulation through widespread illegal practices in many municipal areas like New York or Chicago that have earned in the past a notoriety for ballot stuffing or stealing votes through impersonation. In the current American social climate of the 2020 presidential election, the same concerns come up to the forefront, compounded by threats of cybersecurity. Our research gauged types and extent of concernment among two age groups of voters: college students and senior citizens. We explored the correlations using the baseline survey and re-examined them after applying information frames through a paired comparison. We found that opinions about voter ID laws and cybersecurity have a strong association to age. Our original hypothesis was that seniors will unchangeably perceive voter identification as essential to election safety while young people will emphasize cybersecurity but will be open-minded. Contrary to that hypothesis, seniors expressed an equal concern over voter ID and cybersecurity and seemed to be more susceptible to the influence of new information. Comparably, college students overwhelmingly confirmed their preoccupation with cybersecurity, marginalizing voter ID, but unexpectedly did not show inclination to easily change their views. The age of voters plays a role in how they perceive the concerns and how they react to information about them.

Democracy's Destiny

From its beginning, America has had a paradoxical democracy, where all men are created equal while simultaneously denying the right to vote to anyone who was not White, male, or owned property. The pandemic exposed the fault lines of our democratic form of government. Those imposing barriers to the ballot are facing off against the advocates of access. It is not a new battle. In America, we seek ways to limit who can participate instead of expanding opportunities. We have dedicated our resources to dancing around the edges of democracy-by advocating for vote by mail or automatic voter registration, for example-while allowing states to develop blockades to the ballot that are confusing and quite effective. Without a doubt, America is at a crossroads. The shenanigans that this country has used to prevent access to the ballot box, such as the poll tax, grandfather clause, restrictive voter ID laws, voter purges, and felon disenfranchisement, are antidemocratic and harmful to our system. COVID-19 exposed the fault lines. We must repair them. A free, fair, inclusive, nondiscriminatory right to vote is essential to a healthy democracy. We are in the position to craft a true democratic system of government. Will this country live up to its democratic destiny or continue to deny our journey to a more perfect union?

Stepping Out of the Shadows: Expert Reports on the Disparate Impact of Voter ID Laws

Stepping Out of the Shadows: Expert Reports on the Disparate Impact of Voter ID Laws

Controversy and Costs: Investigating the Consensus on American Voter ID Laws

Voter identification laws (VID) potentially affect who votes and who wins elections, making debates about them highly contentious among national elites and state legislatures. Yet the debate is far more muted among members of the public, with over three quarters of Americans supporting a photo identification requirement to vote, including majorities of both Democrats and Republicans. Research points to several factors that affect opinion on VID; however, these studies have not led to a theoretical framework for understanding the broad consensus of public support. We propose that the public generally views policies requiring ID to vote as commonsensical, uncontroversial, and essentially costless insofar as most people (likely) possess the necessary ID. These perceptions, we argue, undergird the sizable public consensus on VID. If true, then when presented with dissonant information cueing controversy and increasing the costs of compliance with the law, we should expect support to substantially decline. We test these hypotheses using observational and experimental data. We find that citizens are significantly less supportive of an ID requirement upon learning of lower public support, and become dramatically less supportive when obtaining such identification involves some degree of cost. This latter result also holds among Republicans—a group that has long-been exceptionally supportive of VID. We conclude that the strong public consensus on voter ID is, in large part, a result of its costlessness to most citizens combined with limited familiarity with the policy, its controversial nature, and the costs potentially incurred by other citizens to comply with the law.

A disproportionate burden: strict voter identification laws and minority turnout

ABSTRACT Critics of the recent proliferation of strict photo identification laws claim these laws impose a disproportionate burden on racial minorities. Yet, empirical studies of the impact of these laws on minority turnout have reached decidedly mixed results. State and federal courts have responded by offering mixed opinions about the legality of these laws. We offer a more rigorous test of these laws by focusing on more recent elections, by relying on official turnout data rather than surveys, and by employing a more sophisticated research design that assesses change over time using a difference-in-difference approach. Our analysis uses aggregate county turnout data from 2012 to 2016 and finds that the gap in turnout between more racially diverse and less racially diverse counties grew more in states enacting new strict photo ID laws than it did elsewhere. This analysis provides additional empirical evidence that strict voter ID laws appear to discriminate.

Can the Backlash Against Voter ID Laws Activate Minority Voters? Experimental Evidence Examining Voter Mobilization Through Psychological Reactance

Research on the participatory consequences of electoral reforms that increase voting costs largely ignores how the perception that those efforts’ purpose is to disenfranchise certain individuals may affect turnout. Leveraging psychological reactance theory, I test whether invoking that perception activates African Americans (who disproportionately bear those higher costs). A survey experiment shows that framing the most prevalent ballot access restriction, voter identification laws, as designed to keep Blacks from voting increases reactance among this group, reduces their support for ID laws, and raises the perceived threat to their franchise. However, three field experiments on African American registrants find that this message fails to mobilize subjects in general and provide at best limited evidence that this argument spurs elderly Black participation. The results signal that emphasizing the perception that increased voting costs are designed to reduce turnout can alter attitudes but may not ultimately change behavior (i.e., the decision to vote).

An Alternative Route to Voting Reform: the Right to Vote, Voter Registration, Redistricting and U.S. State Constitutions

AbstractThe U.S. Constitution reserves to states the responsibility for regulating most aspects of elections. Recently, the Supreme Court has weakened the tools for federal officials to challenge state elections practices under the Voting Rights Act and signaled a great deal of deference to state authority over election law. As a result, state legislatures’ latitude to regulate elections is constrained primarily by state constitutions. With voter ID laws and partisan gerrymandering commanding considerable attention in recent years, it is important to investigate the importance of state constitutions in this area. In this article, we discuss recent efforts by voting and election reformers to utilize state constitutions to challenge restrictive voting laws and partisan gerrymandering, whether by enacting state constitutional amendments or relying on state constitutional provisions in state court litigation. We also highlight the diverse and often underappreciated landscape of voting and election laws in the states and the resources available to reformers at the state level by analyzing state constitutional provisions bearing on the right to vote, voter registration, and redistricting.