Wisconsin Strict ID Law Discouraged Voters, Study Finds
Source: NYT
WASHINGTON Nearly 17,000 registered Wisconsin voters potentially more were kept from the polls in November by the states strict voter ID law, according to a new survey of nonvoters by two University of Wisconsin political scientists.
The survey, summarized on Monday on the universitys website, is certain to further roil an ongoing debate over whether Donald J. Trumps narrow victory in Wisconsin over Hillary Clinton was a result of efforts to depress Democratic turnout. Mr. Trump defeated Mrs. Clinton by 22,748 votes out of more than 2.9 million ballots cast. The November turnout in Wisconsin, 69.4 percent of eligible voters, was the lowest in a presidential election year since 2000.
The study summarized on Monday specifically does not make that claim, its principal author, Prof. Kenneth R. Mayer of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in an interview. But neither did he rule it out.
The survey did not ask any questions about how people would have voted or about their party identification, he said. But its certainly possible that there were enough voters deterred that it flipped the election.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/us/wisconsin-voters.html
AllyCat
(16,189 posts)Keep people the KGOP does not want to vote...from voting. They are all for guns in every hand and possible location, but the right to vote is REALLY dangerous to them.
sandensea
(21,639 posts)The other, is outright vote theft (https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029253229) - and these Kochsuckers are using both.
riversedge
(70,242 posts)...............In Wisconsin and elsewhere, Republicans have argued that an ID requirement is necessary to combat an epidemic of fraudulent voting, although studies have repeatedly shown that illegal voting is exceedingly rare. Privately, some Republicans have allowed that the laws main intent is to keep people who often vote Democratic the poor, the young and minorities from going to the polls.
The study reported Monday, by Professor Mayer and a doctoral student in political science, Michael G. DeCrescenzo, concludes that that is largely what occurred in November. Their survey involved 288 registered voters in the states two most populous counties who did not cast ballots in the 2016 election. Based on their answers, the study estimated that 11.2 percent of the counties 160,000 registered nonvoters were kept from casting ballots by the voter ID law. Of those, they estimated that 6 percent were prevented from voting because they actually did not have an acceptable ID. Most of the remaining registrants possessed acceptable IDs, the study stated, but did not try to vote because they mistakenly believed that they would not be accepted.
Of the survey respondents who said that the voter ID law deterred or prevented them from voting, about eight in 10 had voted in the previous presidential election, the survey showed............................................
Gothmog
(145,313 posts)IronLionZion
(45,451 posts)if it was just any average Republican, there would be less attention on these voter suppression efforts.