WASHINGTON (AP) — States that toughened
their voter identification laws saw steeper drops in election turnout than
those that did not, with disproportionate falloffs among black and younger
voters, a nonpartisan congressional study released Wednesday concluded.
As of June, 33 states have enacted laws
obligating voters to show a photo ID at the polls, the study said. Republicans
who have pushed the legislation say the requirement will reduce fraud, but
Democrats insist the laws are a GOP effort to reduce Democratic turnout on
Election Day.
The report by the Government
Accountability Office, Congress' investigative agency, was released less than a
month from elections that will determine which party controls Congress.
the office compared election turnout in Kansas and Tennessee — which tightened
voter ID requirements between the 2008 and 2012 elections — to voting in four
states that didn't change their identification requirements.
It estimated that reductions in voter
turnout were about 2 percent greater in Kansas and from 2 to 3 percent steeper
in Tennessee than they were in the other states examined. The four other
states, which did not make their voter ID laws stricter, were Alabama,
Arkansas, Delaware, and Maine.
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