[EL] voter ID backlash after the election?

[Scarberry, Mark]

I'm sorry, but such statements are not nonjudgmental, and it is not a further detour into Tea Party issues to ask for some backup. The questions that are asked on such surveys, the definition of the categories (such as authoritarianism and racial resentment), and the interpretation of the results may have a very substantial effect on the conclusions to be drawn. Possible biases of researchers or possibly dubious and value-laden assumptions undergirding standards used in particular fields of study should not be ignored.

References to the studies, preferably on line, would be appreciated. 

To the extent that authoritarianism is considered to include campus speech codes, closed union shops, a large administrative bureaucracy, organized public workers using political muscle to require other citizens to fund lavish pensions, government regulation that makes formation and operation of small businesses difficult, imposition of values by judges over public opposition, or features of what might be called the nanny state (requirements that bicycle riders wear helmets, smoking bans, etc.), I'd be surprised to see Tea Party members scoring high on authoritarian scales. (Full disclosure: My wife is allergic to cigarette smoke, and we're very grateful that smoking has been banned in most enclosed public places in California. And Brown v. Board was a necessary and just judicial action that went against much public opinion. So call me an authoritarian.) 

To the extent that authoritarianism includes a desire for serious punishment of criminal behavior or similar matters, I wouldn't be surprised. 

My sense is that many Tea Party supporters would consider themselves to be somewhat libertarian rather than authoritarian. Paul even refers to the "libertarian wing of the GOP / Tea Party." But I haven't seen the empirical literature and would appreciate getting references.

Mark S. Scarberry
Professor of Law
Pepperdine Univ. School of Law
Malibu, CA 90263
(310) 506-4667


-----Original Message-----
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Paul Gronke
Sent: Friday, July 01, 2011 8:28 AM
To: Charles Stewart III
Cc: Doug Hess; Election Law
Subject: Re: [EL] voter ID backlash after the election?

Charles raises an interesting issue, and as usual, I agree with him.  

One twist might be if the libertarian wing of the GOP / Tea Party sees this as governmental intrusion, but I've seen little indication of this.  Survey data has also shown a strong relationship between measures such as authoritarianism, racial resentment, and racial and ethnic stereotyping among respondents who profess affiliation with the Tea Party.  Given that support for voter ID shows some of the same correlations, I would not expect a libertarian backlash.

(I do NOT want this to detour into a debate on the Tea Party, which is why I've kept the remarks above purposely non-judgmental.  The correlations I refer to are, in my mind, an empirical fact, replicated across many surveys.  I'll leave the substantive interpretation to others.)
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Paul Gronke	Ph:   503-517-7393
                        Fax: 503-661-0601

Professor, Reed College
Director, Early Voting Information Center
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