Noah echoes the sentiment of then-Attorney General Eric Holder, who in 2014 characterized the call for voter ID laws as an example of "Pernicious" racism.
Last week, MSNBC's Chris Matthews told Holder's successor, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, that Republicans push voter ID laws to "Screw the African-American voter." Lynch responded: "Yes, yes - and it's nothing new. ... This is a historical issue. It's a current issue. And it's only history because it happened to somebody else, not because it could never happen again. That's what's happening now."
That same year, liberal Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wrote one of the majority opinions in a 6-3 case that upheld Indiana's voter ID law, which required voters to show a photo ID - such as a driver's license or passport - before casting their votes.
Stevens recognized "Flagrant examples of fraud" throughout America's history and wrote that "Not only is the risk of voter fraud real" but "It could affect the outcome of a close election." The additional burden on voters, Stevens argued, is more than offset by "The state's interest in counting only the votes of eligible voters."
Citing research by three professors from U.C. San Diego, Michigan State and Bucknell University, the article says: "Turnout among Hispanic voters is '7.1 percentage points lower in general elections and 5.3 points lower in primaries' in states with strict voter ID laws. The laws also reduce turnout among African-American and Asian-American voters. White turnout, according to their study, is 'largely unaffected.'".
A follow-up study by researchers from Yale, Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania found no evidence that voter ID laws have a statistically significant impact on voter turnout.
Its researchers wrote: "Widespread concern that voter identification laws suppress turnout among racial and ethnic minorities has made empirical evaluations of these laws crucial. But problems with administrative records and survey data impede such evaluations. ... We show that the results of the paper are a product of data inaccuracies the presented evidence does not support the stated conclusion ... When errors are corrected, one can recover positive, negative or null estimates of the effect of voter ID laws on turnout, precluding firm conclusions."
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/10/25/the_voter_id_is_racist_con_138448.html
Last week, MSNBC's Chris Matthews told Holder's successor, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, that Republicans push voter ID laws to "Screw the African-American voter." Lynch responded: "Yes, yes - and it's nothing new. ... This is a historical issue. It's a current issue. And it's only history because it happened to somebody else, not because it could never happen again. That's what's happening now."
That same year, liberal Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens wrote one of the majority opinions in a 6-3 case that upheld Indiana's voter ID law, which required voters to show a photo ID - such as a driver's license or passport - before casting their votes.
Stevens recognized "Flagrant examples of fraud" throughout America's history and wrote that "Not only is the risk of voter fraud real" but "It could affect the outcome of a close election." The additional burden on voters, Stevens argued, is more than offset by "The state's interest in counting only the votes of eligible voters."
Citing research by three professors from U.C. San Diego, Michigan State and Bucknell University, the article says: "Turnout among Hispanic voters is '7.1 percentage points lower in general elections and 5.3 points lower in primaries' in states with strict voter ID laws. The laws also reduce turnout among African-American and Asian-American voters. White turnout, according to their study, is 'largely unaffected.'".
A follow-up study by researchers from Yale, Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania found no evidence that voter ID laws have a statistically significant impact on voter turnout.
Its researchers wrote: "Widespread concern that voter identification laws suppress turnout among racial and ethnic minorities has made empirical evaluations of these laws crucial. But problems with administrative records and survey data impede such evaluations. ... We show that the results of the paper are a product of data inaccuracies the presented evidence does not support the stated conclusion ... When errors are corrected, one can recover positive, negative or null estimates of the effect of voter ID laws on turnout, precluding firm conclusions."
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/10/25/the_voter_id_is_racist_con_138448.html
No comments:
Post a Comment