Research on Voter ID

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.

• The Texas Voter ID Law and the 2016 Election: A Study of Harris County and Congressional District 23 (Mark P. Jones, Renée Cross, and Jim Granato) (04/2017)
• Voting Rights and the Kansas Secure and Fair Elections Act (Kansas Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights) (03/2017)
• Understanding the Adoption of Voter Identification Laws in the American States (Daniel R. Biggers and Michael J. Hanmer) (01/16/2017)
• A Partisan Model of Electoral Reform: Voter Identification Laws and Confidence in State Elections (Shaun Bowler and Todd Donovan) (01/11/2016)
• Essay – Softening Voter ID Laws Through Litigation: Is it Enough? (Richard L. Hasen) (03/07/2016)
• Voter Identification Laws and the Suppression of Minority Votes (Zoltan Hajnal, Nazita Lajevardi, Lindsay Nielson) (Draft)
  • Comment on “Voter Identification Laws and the Suppression of Minority Votes” (Justin Grimmer, Eitan Hersh, Marc Meredith, Jonathan Mummolo and Clayton Nall) (03/10/2017)
• The Texas Voter ID Law and the 2014 Election: A Study of Texas’s 23rd Congressional District (Gov. Bill Hobby, Mark P. Jones, Jim Granato, and Renée Cross) (08/2015)
• A Principle or a Strategy? Voter Identification Laws and Partisan Competition in the American States (William D. Hicks, Seth C. McKee, Mitchell D. Sellers and Daniel A. Smith) (10/16/2014)
• The Effects of Voter ID Notification on Voter Turnout: Results from a Large-Scale Field Experiment (Jack Citrin, Donald Green, and Levy Morris) (05/2014)
• Issues Related to State Voter Identification Laws (Government Accountability Office) (9/2014) 
• Jim Crow 2.0? Why States Consider and Adopt Restrictive Access Policies (Keith G. Bentele and Erin E. O’Brien) (12/10/2013)
• Photo ID, Provisional Balloting, and Indiana’s 2012 Primary Election (Michael J. Pitts) (3/28/2013)
• Black and Latino Youth Disproportionately Affected by Voter Identification Laws in the 2012 Election (Jon C. Rogowski and Cathy J. Cohen) (03/2013)
• New State Voting Laws: A Barrier to the Latino Vote? (Jessica A. Gonzalez) (04/15/2012)
• 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)
• Voting and ID Requirements: A Survey of Registered Voters in Three States (Robert A. Pastor, Robert Santos, Alison Prevost, and Vassia Stoilov) (07/2010)
• 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) (06/14/2010)
• The cost of the vote: Poll taxes, voter identification laws, and the price of democracy (Atiba R. Ellis) (02/17/2010)
• 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)
• Documenting Disfranchisement: Voter Identification During Indiana’s 2008 General Election (Michael J. Pitts and Matthew D. Neumann) (Summer, 2009)
• The disproportionate impact of voter-id requirements on the electorate? New evidence from Indiana (Matt Barreto, Stephen Nuno, and Gabriel R. Sanchez) (01/2009)
• Effects of identification requirements on voting: evidence from the experiences of voters on Election Day (Stephen Ansolabehere) (01/2009)
• What We Know About Voter-ID Laws, Registration and Turnout (Majorie Randon Hershey) (01/2009)
• The Empirical Effect of Voter Identification Laws on Turnout (Jason Mycoff, Michael Wagner and David Wilson) (01/2009) 
• 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 Balloting (Michael J. Pitts) (10/21/2008)
• Voter Identification Studies: Which Study Is Right? (Kim Hilsenbeck, Sarah Park, Alison Prevost and Vassia Gueorguieva) (05/2008)
• 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)
• 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) (09/1/2007)  
• The Effect of Voter Identification Laws on Aggregate and Individual Level Turnout (Jason D. Mycoff, Michael W. Wagner, David C. Wilson) (08/2007)
• 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) (01/31/2007)
• 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)
• Protecting the Franchise, or Restricting It?: The Effects of Voter Identification Requirements on Turnout (Timothy Vercellotti and David Anderson) (09/3/2006)
• Evidence of Voter Fraud and the Impact that Regulations to Reduce Fraud Have on Voter Participation Rates (John R. Lott Jr.) (08/18/2006)
• 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) (09/2005)