Experts say Supreme Court ruling upholding law could disenfranchise minorities, youth and the elderly
Experts say African-American voters — a key constituency of Barack Obama in the primaries thus far — might be disproportionately affected in Tuesday’s Indiana primary by the Supreme Court’s recent decision to uphold the state’s voter identification requirement.
Studies show that African-Americans are especially likely not to have the identification necessary to vote on Tuesday. Several other groups, notably elderly voters, disabled voters and young voters, are also more likely than the general population not to have the necessary identification.
“The research is pretty clear that in Indiana this will disproportionately affect certain groups and African-Americans are certainly one of them,” said Julia Vaughn, Indiana policy director for Common Cause. Common Cause and verifiedvoting.org issued a report on May 1 detailing which groups are least likely to have a government-issued photo identification card that meets the Indiana law’s requirements.
As the report noted, a University of Washington study found that 28 percent of African-Americans in the state of Indiana do not have the proper ID to vote. African-Americans make up 9 percent of the voting population in Indiana. By comparison, slightly less than 20 percent of Indianans over 70 do not have the necessary ID, according to the same study. Older voters tend to favor Hillary Rodham Clinton, while Obama has strong support among youth. According to a recent Rock the Vote poll, 19 percent of people under 30 do not have a valid photo identification with their current address as the Indiana law requires. Since young people move frequently they are less likely to have identification cards with their current address.
And young African-Americans are especially likely to not meet the requirements. A study by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee found that in Milwaukee County, Wis., 74 percent of African-Americans and 66 percent of Hispanics aged 18 to 24 did not have a valid driver’s license — which is the most common form of photo identification.
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