The findings raise questions about the constitutionality of voter ID laws, which the Supreme Court affirmed in 2007 on the basis that Indiana's strict law represented a "generally applicable, nondiscriminatory voting regulation." For quick background, these laws require registered voters to show some sort of government-issued ID before they vote -- supporters say they're necessary to prevent voter fraud, while opponents counter that they disproportionately affect elderly, minority and low-income groups. For more, see ProPublica's excellent backgrounder on the topic.
Demonstrating racial bias is not easy -- as I've discussed before, nobody actually calls themselves racists, because much racial bias happens at the subconscious level -- so the USC researchers developed a novel real-world field experiment to test bias among state legislators. In the two weeks prior to the 2012 election, they sent e-mail correspondence to a total of 1,871 state legislators in 14 states. The e-mails read as follows:
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7 comments:
Wow, the Race Card! How original...
Ok.. A study from the Left Wing USC.. I'm sure it was fair... Considering the fact that you need an ID for just about everything else... well, there is no creditability in this study.
yup every democrat knows the republicans discriminate against all those dead people who line up to vote every year!
Seriously showing your ID is racist? Ok so if you get stopped it is racist for the cop to ask for your id? Oh guess its racist to ask for an ID when buying alcohol also? Get over it people - it clearly states on your voter registration for that they require ID - and you signed that form agreeing to it! Get over it - READ BEFORE SIGNING ANYTHING!!!
NO MORE DEAD VOTERS!!!!!
The study shows that all legislators are racist. You should still need an Id for voting if I need one to get a fishing license.
Let's look at this from the other end of the telescope: how about we demand from our legislators that no activity whatever require a government issued I.D.? Or start a civil disobedience movement in which no one shows I.D. on demand.
If we are not required to show that I.D. at a voting booth, neither should we have to show it elsewhere.
The study was pretty clear in its conclusions. I can't see any faults in it's methodologies, and would be open to hear anyone's legitimate objections to the process or the conclusions... because it seems pretty solid. I'm actually surprised at the results, not what I would have expected.
I'm not sure how I fall on the issue of voter ID's. There are a lot of good arguments for them, but I am leary of restricting voting, and I have yet to see anyone provide hard verifiable evidence for rampant voter fraud, so I have yet to jump on the voter ID wagon.
NOTE PLEASE before the knee jerk "liberal" accusations and "obama voter" I am not liberal nor did I vote Obama. I DO however use my brain and don't just parrot whatever Fox News tells me to.
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