[EL] Question on voters who by-pass voter ID requirements

[Doug Hess]

Interesting. Although I am willing to assume, at least use as a null
hyp., that people who act in a way that has a disproportionate impact
on those less like themselves  do so largely "unthinkingly" even
though the result is the same as a more partisan model of behavior.

Keep in mind, too, that non-white poll workers may ask non-white
voters to follow procedures more often than they ask white voters. I
believe there is evidence of this. Anybody know of the paper that
shows this? I need to set up an EndNote or RefWorks file someday of
this stuff.

Doug Hess
202-277-6400 (cell)

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On Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 7:35 PM, Larry Levine <larrylevine at earthlink.net> wrote:
> I'll throw the hand grenade into the discussion by extending Doug's question
> to ask: might a conservative, possible Republican or Tea Party polling place
> worker be more inclined to "look the other way" on some voters and less so
> on other voters? I can hear the Republicans on this list screaming that the
> exact opposite is a bigger worry.
> Larry
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
> [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Doug
> Hess
> Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2011 1:45 PM
> To: Election Law
> Subject: [EL] Question on voters who by-pass voter ID requirements
>
> In talking to some college students the other day, it occurred to me that in
> addition to people who may face higher costs to voting under Voter ID laws
> or who find it very hard to get the proper ID, there is also the possibility
> that some classes of people will be allowed to vote even if they do not have
> the right ID. I know some thought has been given to people who are
> improperly asked for ID in states where it is not required, etc., but what
> about the reverse?  Might voters in smaller towns, or voters benefiting from
> positive regard by the election workers be allowed to vote when they
> shouldn't? After all, "look the other way" events form bias if, when
> aggregated, it occurs more often for members of some groups than others.
>
> It would seem this should be as important a line of research and
> argumentation as the concern of people having a hard time voting, at least
> for concerns about discrimination against a class of voters. In other words,
> even if the law is not applied in a discriminatory fashion AGAINST certain
> voters, is it applied in a discriminatory fashion in FAVOR of some voters? I
> guess supporters of ID laws may say that is just an implementation problem,
> but given that the law doesn't address a real policy concern, it does seem
> one more category of cost against the zero benefits of these laws.
>
> Has much been done on this? I recall that there was some work done 3-4 years
> ago on race and identity checking in the southwest. I forget if it looked at
> failures to implement the law that favored people, or just looked at
> failures that harmed individuals through improper identity checking or
> rejection.
>
> I guess people who know they should not have been allowed to vote are not
> likely to come forward, but certainly some election officials or volunteers
> might be willing to say (perhaps sheepishly) that they have done it by
> mistake or seen it happen (or are concerned that it is happening).
>
> Doug Hess
> 202-277-6400 (cell)
>
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