Turnout Misreporting at the Intersection of Race and Immigration

Objective From the “suburban mom” to “White Evangelicals,” discourse on intersectional identities has long been a part of who is turning out to vote, a canonical act of “good” American citizen. Although intersection identities are critical to understanding political behavior, we have not examined the ways in which intersectional identities can impact misreporting. In this paper, I ask: What is the impact of intersectional identities, and more specifically, the intersection of race and immigrant generation, on misreporting turnout? Methods Using Cooperative Election Study (CES) data from 2010 to 2022, I examine levels of misreporting turnout, validated turnout, and self‐reported turnout across immigrant generations and racial groups. I also use Wald Tests and analyses of subgroups defined by race and immigrant generation to better understand the ways in which misreporting varies at the intersection of race and immigrant generation. Results Across race and immigrant generation, Americans have high rates of self‐reported turnout, but rates of validated turnout and misreporting vary more. I find that race and immigrant generation together are associated with changes in levels of misreporting, as the factors associated with misreporting differ within various race‐generation subgroups. Conclusion Intersectional identities are critical to gaining better understandings of voter turnout. In this case, the intersection of race and immigrant generation offers important leverage in understanding on whether someone misreports turnout.