Politics
Election 2012: ID laws could disenfranchise minority voters
Those numbers amount to a potential erosion of the gains in young minority voter participation over the two previous presidential election cycles, the analysis said.
In 2004, turnout for minority voters ages 18-24 was 44 percent for blacks, 20.4 percent for Hispanics, and 23.4 percent for Asian-Americans. In 2008, 52.3 percent of young blacks, 27.4 percent of young Latinos and 27.8 percent of young Asian-Americans turned out to vote.
Young blacks and Hispanics would be hard hit by the identification requirement, said Judith Browne-Dianis, director of The Advancement Project, which has filed legal challenges to various state voter ID laws. And since a disproportionate number of those potential voters are women, “that means at the end, young women may be the hardest hit,” she said.
“People showed up in ’08 in record numbers,” Browne-Dianis said. “They can do it again, they’re just going to have to jump a hurdle. But it’s worth it.”
Other findings in the Cohen and Rogowski study include:
—Changes in Florida’s voting laws could leave more than 100,000 young minority voters unable to vote, far more than the 537-vote margin of victory for George W. Bush in the contested 2000 presidential election.
—If Pennsylvania’s photo ID law is upheld by the state Supreme Court, 37,000 to 44,000 young voters of color may stay home, or be unable to vote.
