Voter ID Laws

The Disenfranchisement of Minority Voters

Bibliographic Data

ID4285044
AuthorsBen Pryor, Robert Herrick (0000-0002-4001-2386, Issues Research), Rebekah Herrick, James A Davis (0000-0001-7978-1652)
Year2019
Volume134
Issue1
Pages63-83
Publication date2019-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Science Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-3195 • E-ISSN: 1538-165X
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1002/polq.12868
OpenAlexW2922571491
LanguageEN
Citations received10

AMERICANS THINK OF THEIR NATION as an exemplary democracy despite its long history of disenfranchising racial and ethnic minorities. It was not until 1870 that the Fifteenth Amendment gave former male slaves and their male descendants the right to vote. It took another 50 years until women became enfranchised by the Nineteenth Amendment. Still, many citizens had to deal with systematic disenfranchisement caused by regressive state laws such as poll taxes and literacy tests—some of which remained in effect as late as the 1960s. It was not until the 1965 Voting Rights Act was amended in 1975 that citizens were guaranteed voting information or even ballots in a language they could understand. In light of this history, any reform that could put an extra burden on minority voters needs to be carefully examined. For this reason, this article examines the effects of strict voter identification (ID) laws on minority voters

Democracy · Election law · Ethnic group · Political science · Politics · State (computer science) · Voting · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Law, Rights, and Freedoms · Public Administration

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