Documents H and I
Despite the passage of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in 1965, there are still groups that experience voter disenfranchisement around the country today. Many modern voter suppression tactics use similar principles of income inequality and educational disparities to target specific ethnic or racial groups. One of the strategies currently in use requires that voters provide a federal or state-issued photo ID at polling stations. For many citizens a driver’s license or passport may be too expensive to acquire, or it may require travelling a great distance to a state office or producing documents that the person does not have on hand (E.g., a birth certificate).
Document H
These graphs below depict the difference in the number of white, Latino, Asian, and Black voters (voter turnout), in the same district, based on presence/absence of voter ID laws. Published by The Washington Post February 15, 2017.
Document I
This map of the United States is color coded to indicate Voter Identification Requirements. Complied by Wendy Underhill for the National Conference of State Legislatures. Last updated 2/24/2020.
Vocabulary
Voter ID laws: In general elections in states without strict voter ID laws, Latino voter turnout was on average 4.9% lower than white voter turnout in the same areas, but with strict voter ID laws Latino turnout was a much lower 13.2% less than white voters.
Source: Hajnal, Zoltan L. et al. “Do Voter Identification laws suppress minority voting? Yes. We did the research”. The Washington Post, February 15, 2017. Accessed 04/17/2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/02/15/do-voter-identification-laws-suppress-minority-voting-yes-we-did-the-research/.
Source: “Voter Identification Requirements | Voter ID Laws”. Complied by Wendy Underhill for the National Conference of State Legislatures. Last updated 2/24/2020. Accessed 04/17/2020. https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/voter-id.aspx.