Controversial Texas voter ID law kept registered voters with proper ID from voting, study shows

[applegrove]

Controversial Texas voter ID law kept registered voters with proper ID from voting, study shows

Dylan Baddour, Houston Chronicle

http://www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/Controversial-Texas-voter-ID-law-kept-registered-v-6431414.php

"SNIP..............

The most prominent effect of the law seemed to be to discourage voters who actually had one of the forms of photo ID, but due to misinformation or miscommunication believed they did not and did not go to vote," said Mark Jones, a fellow in political science at the Baker Institute and an author of the study.

The study, based on 400 telephone interviews in March, looked exclusively at West Texas congressional district 23 because it was the state's only district that could plausibly have voted either Republican or Democrat. It is also a majority-Latino district, and researchers wanted to investigate common criticism that the Texas law disproportionately affects minorities.

In that district, 5.8 percent of nonvoters said the main reason they didn't cast ballots was that they didn't have any of the required photo IDs, and 12.8 percent said it was one of several reasons. However research revealed that only 2.7 percent of non-voters actually didn't possess a required ID.

Jones said the numbers showed that many voters were misinformed.

However he cautioned that voter ID requirements were a "modest factor" in making Texas' 2014 turnout the lowest in the nation for an election that saw the lowest nationwide participation since 1942. The most cited reason for not voting (38.5 percent) was "too busy" with school or work. After that was "felt vote wouldn't make a difference" (34.1 percent) and "didn't like the candidates" (26.9 percent). Lack of ID came in seventh.


...............SNIP"

[Fred Sanders]

1. The way the Houston Chronicle frames political stories is extremely right wing it seems.

[applegrove]

2. I never thought of voter id as a way to misinform people. But yeah. That's probably part of

the reason the GOP do it. Also too to create apathy. Not to mention the small percentage who don't have id. Voter ID is one of those gifts that keeps on giving to the GOP.

[Fred Sanders]

3. The way the writer frames the story as "lacking voter ID" is the 7th most often reason cited for

not voting is a transparent attempt to diminish the clear research as accepted by the federal court, that lack of voter ID inhibits very likely and motivated voters in large numbers ....and ignores that the tens of thousand affected WANT to vote and would effect close election outcomes, and these very likely votes were denied, totally different than folks using an excuse not to vote.