Title: Study: voter ID laws don’t reduce voter fraud — or voter turnout - Vox
Headings: A new study finds voter ID laws don’t reduce voter fraud — or voter turnout
A new study finds voter ID laws don’t reduce voter fraud — or voter turnout
The laws don’t seem to do what critics fear or proponents hope.
What the latest study found
Other research suggests voter ID laws have limited to no effect
That doesn’t make voter ID laws okay — far from it
How much in-person voter fraud was there between 2000 and 2014?
Credible allegations of in-person voter impersonation versus total ballots cast in national general elections
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Content: But critics argue that the laws, by restricting voting, make it harder for minority voters in particular to cast a ballot. But a new study suggests that the laws, which require certain IDs to vote, may do neither. The study, from Enrico Cantoni at the University of Bologna and Vincent Pons at Harvard Business School, found that voter ID laws don’t decrease voter turnout, including that of minority voters. Nor do they have a detectable effect on voter fraud — which is extremely rare in the US, anyway. The implication: Despite the legal and political battles over voter ID laws, they don’t really seem to do much of anything. The researchers caution that their results “should be interpreted with caution” and that they “do not see our results as the last word on this matter — quite the opposite.” Still, the findings join a growing body of research that suggests voter ID laws have a much smaller effect than critics feared and proponents hoped. Democrats argue that the laws discriminate against minority and younger voters who are more likely to vote for Democratic candidates, because they’re less likely to have the money, transportation means, and flexible work hours needed to obtain a required ID. Republicans, on the other hand, insist that the measures are meant only to protect against voter fraud, although in some cases they’ve admitted that the intent is to make it harder for some groups to vote.