skewing democracy: the impact of state voter id laws on
TRANSCRIPT
Skewing Democracy: The Impact of State Voter ID Laws on Voter Participation
A Rhode Island Perspective
Rachel FlahertyThe University of Rhode Island
Spring 2016
History of voter ID ❏ White male landowners
❏ 15th, 19th, and 26th amendments → suffrage was extended to Blacks, Women,
and 18 year-olds
❏ Literacy tests
❏ Poll taxes
❏ Grandfather clause
→ Despite progress made, legislation continues to exist that actively works to suppress
the ability to vote among certain constituencies...considered by some to be
“modern-day Jim Crow” laws because they disproportionately impact minority voters
Research Question Q: Are the voter ID laws in RI an outlier is the sense that they don't have a discernible
impact on voter turnout during elections? In an effort to answer this question, I have
created four aims and objectives:
1. Evaluate current voter ID laws in place in RI and discuss how/why these laws
were passed
2. Determine whether or not RI fits into this pattern of deterrence or does it
present a different model?
3. Do voter ID laws in other states deter certain constituencies from voting?
4. Do any laws in RI deter constituencies from voting?
Current voter ID laws in RI
❏ January 1, 2012 → Rhode Island's first
voter ID legislation was made effective
❏ If voter doesn’t have required ID they can
cast a provisional ballot
❏ Major reason for passage = “voter fraud”
Do any laws in RI deter constituencies from voting?❏ Anyone who is eligible to
vote can register and vote
❏ If a RI resident doesn’t
possess necessary form of ID
they can submit provisional
ballot on election day
❏ RI’s ID laws are far more
liberal in comparison to other
states
❏ Data shows that there
was an overall drop in
turnout between 2008 to
2012, I wanted to see if
this drop in turnout
could be attributed to the drop in voter turnout among minorities in RI
Do voter ID laws in other states deter constituencies from voting?❏ Alabama → August 2015, the Washington Post published, “Alabama Risks
Making It Much Harder to Get Required Voter ID”❏ significant deterrence towards minority voting because one of the major forms of acceptable photo
ID is a driver's license...Studies show that a lack of identification is particularly acute among the
minority population, the poor, and the young (Hajnal et al, 2016).
❏ 2007 Houston Chronicle article → Royal Masset (the former political director
for the Republican Party of Texas) is quoted as saying he believes that requiring
photo IDs could cause enough of a drop off in legitimate Democratic voting to
add 3 percent to the Republican vote (Mack, 2007).
❏ Government
Accountability Office
(GAO) identified costs
for voter identification in
17 states that require
voters to present a photo
or government-issued ID
at the polls, and found
that driver's license
direct costs, for example,
range from $14.50 to
$58.50 (GAO, 2014).
Is it a ploy used by Red states to gain power?
Source: Newman, Mark. The University of Michigan - Department of Physics and Center for the Study of Complex Systems, “Maps of the 2012 US presidential election results”. November 8, 2012.
Is it a ploy used by Red states to gain power?
Source: National Conference of State Legislatures. “Voter Identification Laws in Effect in 2016”. Voter Identification Requirements – Voter ID Laws. January 4, 2016. http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/voter-id.aspx
Is it a ploy used by Red states to gain power?❏ 24 red states:
❏ 10 require photo ID, 8 require either photo ID or non-photo ID, 4 require government issued photo ID card, one requests non-photo ID, and one doesn’t require any ID for voting.
❏ *** 95% of states that voted red in the 2012 presidential election require identification to vote***
❏ In contrast, 26 blue states, 10 do not require any ID and 4 require photo ID.*** This means that only 15% of blue states require photo ID in comparison to the 95% of republican states.***
Conclusion❏ not able to definitively say strict voter ID requirements keep minorities
from voting
❏ However, we can speculate that with more restrictive legislation (in high
minority districts), the percent of minority voters will drop
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