Link to Study
Abstract:
The adoption of voter identication (ID) requirements has raised concerns that these laws differentially reduce turnout among minorities. We use a field experiment to investigate one mechanism by which these laws could reduce turnout: differential information provision about voting requirements to minorities. We contact over 7,000 local election administrators in 48 states and observe that they provide different information about ID requirements to voters of different putative ethnicities. Emails sent from Latino aliases are significantly less likely to receive any response from local election officials than non-Latino white aliases and receive responses of lower quality. This raises concerns about the effect of voter ID laws on access to the franchise and about bias in the provision of information by local bureaucrats more generally.
In other words, when Joe Blow emails the county clerk and asks "What do I need to do to register to vote?", he is more likely to get a response than Jose Blowosa, and the response is more likely to be accurate.
More below the Orange Squiggle of Power.
Analyzing data from over 5300 replies, we found clear evidence of bias against Latinos in the responsiveness of local election officials. While our design does not allow us to identify specificc mechanisms responsible for this bias, we show that emailers with Latino names were roughly five percentage points less likely to receive a reply to a question about voter ID requirements than non-Latino whites.
In other words, voter ID laws will reduce Hispanic turnout, because Hispanic voters will be less likely to be given the information necessary to get past the hurdles erected by the voter ID law.
And that, of course, is part of the plan. It's not just opinion; it's now science.