Study Finds Republican Voter Suppression Is Even More Effective Than You Think

[Gothmog]

11. Study: Law Discouraged More Than Those Without Voter ID

The above study is consistent with and to a large degree validates the Rice University/Baker Institute study

The sole and only purpose for voter id laws is to suppress the vote and a new study out shows that these laws do suppress the vote. One Congressional seat went to the GOP due to the Texas voter id law according to this study http://www.texastribune.org/2015/08/06/study-law-discouraged-more-those-without-voter-id/

Texas’ strict voter identification requirements kept many would-be voters in a Hispanic-majority congressional district from going to the polls last November — including many who had proper IDs — a new survey shows.

And the state's voter ID law – coupled with lackluster voter education efforts – might have shaped the outcome of a congressional race, the research suggests.

Released on Thursday, the 50th anniversary of the federal Voting Rights Act, the joint Rice University and University of Houston study found that 13 percent of those registered in the 23rd Congressional District and did not vote stayed home, at least partly, because they thought they lacked proper ID under a state law considered the strictest in the nation. And nearly 6 percent did not vote primarily because of the requirements.

But most of those discouraged Texans had the proper documents to vote, says the study, which came one day after a federal appeals court ruled that the four-year-old Texas law has a “discriminatory effect” on Hispanics and African-Americans....

Researchers focused on CD-23 largely because of its demographics and the neck-in-neck congressional race it held. CD-23 is seen as the state's only U.S. House district that's competitive between Republicans and Democrats. Roughly two-thirds of the voting age population is Hispanic.

Just 118,000 voters cast ballots in the race that saw U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-San Antonio, edge incumbent Pete Gallego, a Democrat from Alpine. The difference was about 2,400 votes.

Of those who said the state ID law discouraged them from voting, four to five times more said they would have voted for Gallego.

“While the results of this survey do not allow us to conclude that Gallego would have been re-elected in the absence of the voter photo ID law, they do indicate that the law did have a disproportionate impact on his supporters, and therefore may have possibly cost him the election,” the study said

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The Rice/Baker institute did a good job here. Voter id laws depress voter turnout and it appears that Pete Gallego is not in Congress now due to this law.