IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/socsci/v100y2019i1p215-232.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Voter ID Laws: A View from the Public

Author

Listed:
  • Paul Gronke
  • William D. Hicks
  • Seth C. McKee
  • Charles Stewart
  • James Dunham

Abstract

Objective The proliferation of voter identification (ID) laws in the American states has spawned a growing literature examining their causes and effects. We move in a different direction, focusing on public opinion toward these laws. Methods Drawing on a battery of questions in the 2014 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, we explore why some respondents believe these laws prevent fraud while others believe they disadvantage political participation. Results We find that partisanship shapes respondents’ attitudes about the effects of voter ID laws, but in different ways. Democrats, whose opinions vary according to ideology, education, attention to politics, and racial resentment, are divided. Republicans, however, are markedly more united in their support of voter ID laws. Conclusions These differences, we argue, are consistent with an elite‐to‐mass message transmission reflecting the current context of polarized party politics and the variation in the voter coalitions comprising the Democratic and Republican parties.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Gronke & William D. Hicks & Seth C. McKee & Charles Stewart & James Dunham, 2019. "Voter ID Laws: A View from the Public," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 100(1), pages 215-232, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:100:y:2019:i:1:p:215-232
    DOI: 10.1111/ssqu.12541
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12541
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ssqu.12541?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Joseph Coll & Caroline J. Tolbert & Michael Ritter, 2022. "Understanding Preferences for Comprehensive Electoral Reform in the United States," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 103(7), pages 1523-1538, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:100:y:2019:i:1:p:215-232. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0038-4941 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.