| dc.description.abstract |
Voter identification laws in the United States are a controversial and often misunderstood
issue. Previous research has found that public opinion of voter identification laws
is influenced by views of race and racial framing. This paper builds off this research
and tests whether support for voter ID laws among White voters with higher levels
of racial resentment increases when such policies are framed in racial terms. Using
an experiment embedded in an original survey, I find that when White voters with strong
levels of racial resentment are informed that voter ID laws disproportionately impact
Black voters, their levels of support for such laws increase significantly. These
Whites also become more likely to report that voter fraud is a problem, and more likely
to report favorable evaluations of Donald Trump, who has repeatedly suggested that
voter fraud was a problem in the 2016 presidential election. These findings support
the hypothesis that although voter ID laws are ostensibly race-neutral, the public
perceives them as racialized. This suggests important considerations for the way such
laws are framed and discussed.
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