Brennan Center for Justice

It’s important to protect the integrity of our elections. But we must be careful not to undermine free and fair access to the ballot. The following is a comprehensive list of social science research on the impact of voter identification restrictions, which make it harder for some citizens to vote.

• Black and Latino Youth Disproportionately Affected by Voter Identification Laws in the 2012 Election (Jon C. Rogowski and Cathy Cohen) (3/13/2013)
• North Carolina State Board of Elections: 2013 State Board of Elections-Department of Motor Vehicles ID Analysis (Gary O. Bartlett) (1/7/2013)
• Mississippi Voter Exit Research-Final Report (Edison Research) (12/10/2012)
• Knowledge about Voter Laws Still Lacking (The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) (10/30/2012)
• Broad Support for Photo ID Voting Requirements (Pew Research Center for People and the Press, Andrew Kohut, Carroll Doherty, Michael Dimock and Scott Keeter) (10/11/2012)
• Pennsylvania’s Identity Crisis: Rushed Implementation of Voter ID Law Putting Voting Rights at Risk (Sharon Ward) (8/2012)
• Voter ID in Michigan (Pew Center on the States) (7/3/2012)
• Does PA’s new voter ID law impact groups differently by ethnicity? (Tamara Manik-Perlman) (7/2/2012)
• The New Wave of Election Regulation: Burden without Benefit (Justin Levitt) (6/6/2012)
• New State Voting Laws: A Barrier to the Latino Vote? (Jessica A. Gonzalez) (4/15/2012)
• Perspectives: Are voter photo identification laws a good idea? (T. Middleton) (Social Education, 76(2), 66-70) (2012) (no link available)
• Protecting the integrity of the election process (Hans von Spakovsky) (2012) 
• Much ado about nothing? An empirical assessment of the Georgia voter identification statute (M.V. Hood and Charles Bullock III) (2012)
• The Disproportionate Impact of Photo-ID Laws on the Minority Electorate (Gabriel R. Sanchez, Stephen A. Nuño and Matt A. Barreto) (4/2011)
• Report to WI Legislature Survey re: Research on voter identification laws (Barry C. Burden, David T. Canon, Kenneth R. Mayer, Donald P. Moynihan) (1/5/2011)
• Can voter id laws be administered in a race-neutral manner? Evidence from the city of Boston in 2008 (Rachael V. Cobb, D. James Greiner, Kevin M. Quinn) (6/14/2010)
• The cost of the vote: Poll taxes, voter identification laws, and the price of democracy (Atiba R. Ellis) (2/17/2010)
• A new barrier to participation: Heterogeneous application of voter identification policies (Lonna Rae Atkeson, Lisa A. Bryant, Thad E. Hall, Kyle L. Suanders, R. Michael Alvarez) (8/14/2009)
• The disproportionate impact of voter-id requirements on the electorate? New evidence from Indiana (Matt Barreto, Stephen Nuno, and Gabriel R. Sanchez) (1/2009)
• Effects of identification requirements on voting: evidence from the experiences of voters on Election Day (Stephen Ansolabehere) (1/2009)
• What We Know About Voter-ID Laws, Registration and Turnout (Majorie Randon Hershey) (1/2009)
• The Empirical Effect of Voter Identification Laws on Turnout (Jason Mycoff, Michael Wagner and David Wilson) (1/2009) 
• The Voter ID Mess: Estimating the Effects of State Voter ID laws on Voter Turnout and Self-Reported Voting Irregularities (Jeff Milyo) (2009) 
• Voter-identification requirements and the learning curve (Timothy Vercellotti and David Anderson) (2009)
• The empirical effects of voter id laws: Present or absent? (Jason Mycoff, Michael Wagner and David Wilson) (2009)
• Modeling problems in the voter identification—voter turnout debate (Robert S. Erikson and Lorraine C. Minnite) (2009)
• ID at the Polls: Assessing the Impact of Recent State Voter ID Laws on Voter Turnout (Shelley DeAluth) (2009)
• Empirically Assessing the Impact of Photo Identification at the Polls Through An Examination of Provisional Ballots (Michael J. Pitts) (10/21/2008)
• Voter Identification Studies: Which Study Is Right? (Kim Hilsenbeck, Sarah Park, Alison Prevost and Vassia Gueorguieva) (5/2008)
• An empirical bayes approach to estimating ordinal treatment effects (R. Michael Alvarez, Delia Bailey, and Jonathan A. Katz) (03/28/2008)
• Voter IDs are Not the Problem (Dr. Robert Pastor, Robert Santos, Alison Provost and Vissia Gueorguieva) (1/9/2008)
• Empirically assessing the impact of photo identification at the polls through an examination of provisional balloting (Michael J. Pitts) (2008) 
• Vote fraud in the eye of the beholder: the role of public opinion in the challenge to voter identification requirements (Stephen Ansolabehere and Nathaniel Persily) (2008) 
• The Disproportionate Impact of Indiana Voter ID Requirements on the Electorate (Matt A. Barreto, Stephen A. Nuno, Gabriel R. Sanchez) (11/8/2007)
• The Effects of Photographic Identification on Voter Turnout in Indiana (Jeff Milyo) (11/2007)
• The Effect of Voter Identification Laws on Turnout (M. Alvarez, Delia Bailey and Jonathan N. Katz) (11/2007)
• Voter ID requirements and the disenfranchisement of Latino, Black and Asian votes (Matt A. Barreto, Stephen A. Nuño and Gabriel R. Sanchez) (9/1/2007)  
• New Analysis Shows Voter Identification Laws Do Not Reduce Turnout (David Muhlhausen and Keri Weber Sikich) (9/2007)
• The New Mexico Elections Administrative Report: The 2006 November General Election (R. Michael Alvarez, Lonna Rae Atkeson, Thad E. Hall) (8/2/2007)
• The Effect of Voter Identification Laws on Aggregate and Individual Level Turnout (Jason D. Mycoff, Michael W. Wagner, David C. Wilson) (8/2007)
• Voter Identification: Suppression or Precaution? (Jason Randall) (4/16/2007)
• Worth a thousand words?: An analysis of Georgia’s voter identification statute (M.V. Hood III and Charles Bullock III) (4/2007)  
• Access versus Integrity in Voter Identification Requirements (Stephen Ansolabehere) (1/31/2007)
• Voter Identification (Spencer Overton) (2007)
• Citizens Without Proof: A Survey of Americans’ Possession of Documentary Proof of Citizenship and Photo Identification (Brennan Center for Justice) (11/2006)
• Survey Indicates House Bill Could Deny Voting Rights to Millions of U.S. Citizens (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities) (9/22/2006)
• Increasing the security of elections: The effect of identification requirements on turnout of minority voters (Hans von Spakovsky) (9/13/2006)
• Protecting the Franchise, or Restricting It?: The Effects of Voter Identification Requirements on Turnout (Timothy Vercellotti and David Anderson) (9/3/2006)
• Evidence of Voter Fraud and the Impact That Regulations Have On Voter Participation Rates (John R. Lott Jr.) (8/18/2006)
• Report to the U. S. Election Assistance Commission On Best Practices to Improve Voter Identification Requirements Pursuant to the HELP AMERICA VOTE ACT OF 2002 Public Law 107-252 (The Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and The Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University) (6/28/2006)
• Analysis of the September 15, 2005 Voter Fraud Report Submitted to the New Jersey Attorney General (Brennan Center and Michael McDonald) (12/2005)
• Response to the Report of the 2005 Commission on Federal Election Reform (Brennan Center and Spencer Overton) (9/2005)
• The Driver License Status of the Voting Age Population in Wisconsin (John Pawasarat) (6/2005)
• Preliminary Findings of Joint Task Force Investigating Possible Election Fraud (State of Wisconsin) (4/10/2005)