A new Gallup poll released Monday shows three out of four nonwhite persons in the U.S. support voter I.D. laws, throwing a nice logic-sized wrench into the claim that blacks and Hispanics are universally opposed to the generally GOP-favored voting requirement.
An oft-used argument against the implementation of voter I.D. laws is the notion that they’ll unfairly target minorities, particularly those who somehow can’t get to a DMV and pick up a free state identification document like everyone else.
A talkingpointsmemo.com report just last February (which was based on a study that hadn't been released yet) claimed voter I.D. laws were politically motivated against minorities who primarily vote Democrat, stating:
Voter ID laws adversely affected the turnout of minorities, and particularly that of Latinos, the paper found. The study also revealed that turnout among Democrats was disproportionately affected, backing up claims of a political motivation behind the laws, which have been overwhelmingly championed by GOP legislators.
A Washington Post report released around the same time also noted that voter I.D. laws “’skew democracy’ in favor of white Republicans” (all while begrudgingly noting that the public is largely in favor of such laws, admitting that no real long-term data exists on the impact of such requirements, and offering absolutely no logical reason why eligible minority voters can’t show up with an acceptable form of identification).
But interestingly, a new Gallup poll shows that as a whole, minorities are actually very supportive of voter I.D. laws.
Gallup found a that nearly three out of four “nonwhites” (77 percent) supported requiring a person to show his or her I.D. before voting, as compared with 81 percent of white respondents.
Less than half of nonwhites (46 percent) said they were concerned about voter I.D. laws preventing eligible citizens from voting. However, 35 percent of nonwhites said they were concerned the lack of voter I.D. laws would allow ineligible people to vote illegally, in line with the 37 percent of whites who reported the same concern.
Gallup noted that the public largely supports voter I.D. laws across all ethnicities, regions and political affiliations, reporting that overall, four out of five Americans say they are in favor of the voter I.D. requirement.
**Based on Gallup data, a previous version of this story reported that 71 percent of nonwhites supported voter I.D. laws, compared with 59 percent of whites. This story has been corrected to reflect updated numbers from Gallup.