Study: Strong Evidence Of Discriminatory Intent Behind Voter ID Laws
A University of California study shows that racial bias is a strong motivator behind voter ID laws. Emails were sent to state legislators using two different names: Jacob Smith and Santiago Rodriguez. The emails were identical except for the sender’s name. Legislators who favored voter ID laws were much more responsive to Jacob Smith than they were to Santiago Rodriguez.
Click here for reuse options!The researchers found that legislators who had supported voter ID laws were much more likely to respond to “Jacob Smith” than to “Santiago Rodriguez.” This gap reveals a preference for responding to constituents with Anglophone names over constituents with Hispanic ones.
There was also an Anglophone preference among legislators who had not backed ID requirements, but crucially this preference was much smaller. This finding held true among legislators who received English-language e-mails, as well as legislators who received Spanish e-mails…
“The fact that legislators supporting voter identification responded so much [less] to the Latino name is evidence anti-Latino bias, unrelated to electoral considerations, might be influencing these public policies,” they write. “The same elites who propose and support legislation to restrict Latino voting rights also provide less non-policy responsiveness to Latino constituents, at least in the context examined here. This means that the quality of representation is poor for many Latino constituents.”
Copyright 2014 Liberaland
By: Cheston Catalano
Cheston Catalano is a Kentucky-based journalist whose work has been featured in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle. He is a long-time contributor to Liberaland.
6 responses to Study: Strong Evidence Of Discriminatory Intent Behind Voter ID Laws
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Budda June 3rd, 2014 at 19:18
Anybody with half a brain knows it’s purpose is to suppress the Democratic vote.
arc99 June 3rd, 2014 at 20:45
It takes even less than half a brain to watch a brief video where one of the godfathers of modern conservatism very clearly states that the conservative agenda should be to minimize voter participation as much as possible.
The fact that so many right wingers are still in denial about this stated goal is a good indicator of the approximate size of whatever fraction of a brain they do possess.
Mind you, this was not just some fringe lone wolf. Paul Weyrich was a co-founder of the Heritage Foundation, ALEC and the Moral Majority.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GBAsFwPglw
Paul Weyrich – “I don’t want everybody to vote”
Budda June 3rd, 2014 at 19:18
Anybody with half a brain knows it’s purpose is to suppress the Democratic vote.
arc99 June 3rd, 2014 at 20:45
It takes even less than half a brain to watch a brief video where one of the godfathers of modern conservatism very clearly states that the conservative agenda should be to minimize voter participation as much as possible.
The fact that so many right wingers are still in denial about this stated goal is a good indicator of the approximate size of whatever fraction of a brain they do possess.
Mind you, this was not just some fringe lone wolf. Paul Weyrich was a co-founder of the Heritage Foundation, ALEC and the Moral Majority.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GBAsFwPglw
Paul Weyrich – “I don’t want everybody to vote”
arc99 June 4th, 2014 at 00:32
Ever notice how right wingers express all kinds of outrage over non-existent voter fraud, but say not a word about real cases of disenfranchisement, other than perhaps denigrating the citizen who was prevented from voting.
Earlier today in another thread, some right winger admonished me to stop “whining”. I replied that I would stop right after folks on his end of the political spectrum did the same. After further reflection, I have changed my mind. I will continue to whine as long as right wing idiocy actually becomes law and produces results like this.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/voter-id-law-disenfranchises-93-year-old-black-man?cid=sm_twitter
93-year-old black man disenfranchised by Alabama voter ID law
arc99 June 4th, 2014 at 00:32
Ever notice how right wingers express all kinds of outrage over non-existent voter fraud, but say not a word about real cases of disenfranchisement, other than perhaps denigrating the citizen who was prevented from voting.
Earlier today in another thread, some right winger admonished me to stop “whining”. I replied that I would stop right after folks on his end of the political spectrum did the same. After further reflection, I have changed my mind. I will continue to whine as long as right wing idiocy actually becomes law and produces results like this.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/voter-id-law-disenfranchises-93-year-old-black-man?cid=sm_twitter
93-year-old black man disenfranchised by Alabama voter ID law