Posted Monday, March 30th, 2009 by HLPRonline editorial staff
ID at the Polls: Assessing the Impact of Recent State Voter ID Laws on Voter Turnout
by SHELLEY DE ALTH
Last spring, in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, the Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s law requiring voters to show picture identification in order to vote, but the Court divided four ways over the issue. Central to the Justices’ debate and the applicable constitutional balancing test was the degree of the burden that the law imposes on voters. This Essay surveys the voter ID controversy and describes original empirical research finding ID laws to have a negative impact on voter turnout. Since the Court left open the possibility of as-applied challenges to voter ID laws, future litigants who can produce research such as this will have a much stronger case to have these laws declared unconstitutional.
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