Study: Law Discouraged More Than Those Without Voter ID
*This is in Texas, where voter ID kept Latinos from the polls. The same could apply to all the other states where and ID requirement directly affects the outcome of elections. VL
By Jim Malewitz, The Texas Tribune
Texas’ strict voter identification requirements kept many would-be voters in a Hispanic-majority congressional district from going to the polls last November — including many who had proper IDs — a new survey shows.
[pullquote][tweet_dis]The voter ID law depressed turnout in the 2014 election, but it did so primarily through confusion, not through actually keeping people without IDs from voting.[/tweet_dis][/pullquote]And the state’s voter ID law – coupled with lackluster voter education efforts – might have shaped the outcome of a congressional race, the research suggests.
Released on Thursday, the 50th anniversary of the federal Voting Rights Act, the joint Rice University and University of Houston study found that 13 percent of those registered in the 23rd Congressional District and did not vote stayed home, at least partly, because they thought they lacked proper ID under a state law considered the strictest in the nation. And nearly 6 percent did not vote primarily because of the requirements.
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