Voter ID Laws: A View from the Public

• Published in: Social science quarterly Vol. 100; no. 1; pp. 215 - 232
• Main Authors: Gronke, Paul, Hicks, William D., McKee, Seth C., Stewart, Charles, Dunham, James
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.02.2019
• Subjects: Coalitions; Congressional elections; Cooperation; Election results; Fraud; Identification; Ideology; Partisanship; Political attitudes; Political participation; Political parties; Politics; Public opinion; Resentment; Respondents
• ISSN: 0038-4941; 1540-6237
• DOI: 10.1111/ssqu.12541

Objective The proliferation of voter identification (ID) laws in the American states has spawned a growing literature examining their causes and effects. We move in a different direction, focusing on public opinion toward these laws. Methods Drawing on a battery of questions in the 2014 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, we explore why some respondents believe these laws prevent fraud while others believe they disadvantage political participation. Results We find that partisanship shapes respondents’ attitudes about the effects of voter ID laws, but in different ways. Democrats, whose opinions vary according to ideology, education, attention to politics, and racial resentment, are divided. Republicans, however, are markedly more united in their support of voter ID laws. Conclusions These differences, we argue, are consistent with an elite‐to‐mass message transmission reflecting the current context of polarized party politics and the variation in the voter coalitions comprising the Democratic and Republican parties.