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

Does RI fit into this pattern of deterrence?

❏ 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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