Researchers Find Factors Tied To Voting Restriction Bills Are 'Basically All Racial'

ERIC LACH – DECEMBER 20, 2013, 4:02 PM EST

The debate over voting rights has gone to college.

Two University of Massachusetts Boston (DonViejo's alma mater ) academics -- Keith G. Bentele, an assistant professor of Sociology, and Erin O'Brien, an associate professor of Political Science -- recently published a paper looking at the proposal and passage of restrictive voter access legislation from 2006 to 2011. In the paper, titled "Jim Crow 2.0? Why States Consider and Adopt Restrictive Voter Access Policies," the authors conclude that restrictive voter measures are connected to both partisan and racial factors.

"We looked at proposed and passage over this period, and we looked at just 2011 specifically," Bentele told TPM in an interview this week. "And you have this consistent emergence -- over and over and over -- these partisan and racial factors are the most strongly associated with these outcomes."

The paper focused on a range of restrictive voter access legislation. That means not just voter ID bills, but also the regulation of groups who register voters, the shortening of early voting periods, and other issues. And these efforts were not limited geographically. Restrictive voter access legislation was proposed in nearly every state in the country during the six-year period looked at, and at least one restrictive change passed in half the states.

full article
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/study-finds-voting-restrictions-linked-to-minority-turnout