We All Agree: Strict Voter ID Laws Disproportionately Burden Minorities

Voter ID laws determine who can and who cannot vote. Given the recent propagation of these laws by Republican legislatures, efforts by the Trump administration and other state legislatures to expand their reach, and the wide-ranging impact that all of this could have on racial and ethnic minorities, it is imperative that we understand their consequences. The research presented by Grimmer et al. misleads more than it informs. Their comment seeks to convince readers that voter ID laws help minorities as much as they help whites. That conclusion, however, contrasts with their own results. Although Grimmer et al. choose not to mention it, their reanalysis of our data confirms the core finding of our research, which is that strict voter ID laws discriminate. Far from raising questions about the impact of voter identification laws, their research serves to confirm our study and to demonstrate the racially disparate nature of these laws.