States of Confusion: How Our Voter ID Laws Fail Democracy and What to Do About It

by Don Waisanen, Sonia R. Jarvis, Nicole A. Gordon

Overview

Shows the maddening difficulties that voter ID requirements create for participants in US democracy and offers concrete solutions for every person’s vote and voice to count

Over the past decade, and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of voter ID laws has skyrocketed, limiting the ability of nearly twenty-five million eligible voters from exercising their constitutional right to cast a vote. In States of Confusion, Don Waisanen, Sonia Jarvis, and Nicole Gordon explore this crisis and the difficulties it has created for American voters, offering practical solutions for this increasingly important problem.

Focusing on ten states with the strictest voter documentation requirements, the authors show how people face major barriers to exercising their fundamental democratic right to vote and are therefore slipping through the cracks of our electoral system. They explore voter experiences by drawing on hundreds of online surveys, audits of 150 election offices, community focus groups, and more.

Waisanen, Jarvis, and Gordon call on policymakers to adopt uniform national voter identification standards that are simple, accessible, and cost-free. States of Confusion offers a comprehensive and up-to-date look at the voter ID crisis in our country, as well solutions for practitioners, government agencies, and citizens.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781479807949
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	01/03/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Don Waisanen (Author)
Don Waisanen is Professor of Communication at the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College, City University of New York (CUNY). He is the author of several books, including Political Conversion: Personal Transformation as Strategic Public Communication and Improv for Democracy: How to Bridge Differences and Develop the Communication and Leadership Skills Our World Needs.

Sonia R. Jarvis (Author)
Sonia R. Jarvis is Distinguished Lecturer of Public Affairs and the Director of the Baruch College Center on Equality, Pluralism and Policy at the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College, CUNY. Previously, she served as Executive Director of the National Coalition on Black Voter Participation, President of the Black Women's Agenda, and Senior Consultant to the President’s Initiative on Race during the Clinton administration.

Nicole A. Gordon (Author)
Nicole A. Gordon is Distinguished Lecturer in Public Affairs and Faculty Director of the Executive MPA Program at the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College, CUNY. She has published in journals including Political Science Quarterly, Suffolk University Law Review (with the Hon. Sonia Sotomayor), Journal of Law and Policy, Albany Law Review, and the Fordham Urban Law Journal. Previously, she was the founding Executive Director of the NYC Campaign Finance Board.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Introduction: Voting Made Difficult 1

1 On the Ground: The Reality of Voter ID Requirements 11

2 Understanding the Problem: What We Need to Know 30

3 Different Perspectives: Citizens, Election Offices, and Nonprofits 42

4 Breaking Down the System: Problems, Challenges, and Opportunities 66

5 Taking a Closer Look: Voter IDs in Everyday Life 119

6 How to Fix the Problem: Implementing Realistic Solutions 143

Conclusion: Closing the Gap between Citizens and Voting 159

Acknowledgments 173

Appendix A Strict Voter ID States Documentation Requirements 175

Appendix B Examples of Costs 181

Appendix C Research Instruments 183

Appendix D Election-Related Resources for Nonprofits and Community Organizations 199

Notes 203

Index 251

About the Authors 255

Editorial Reviews

2022-10-27
A detailed study of the many ways in which voter documentation requirements discriminate against voters likely to join the blue column.

“Texas doesn’t allow student ID cards but does accept concealed weapons permits for the purposes of voting.” It’s not that Texas loves guns and hates learning, though that may enter the equation, but instead that 4 out of 5 handgun permits went to Whites there, while about half of voting-age students are members of minority communities. Given that those minority communities often vote for the Democratic Party, it’s natural that Republicans—the state’s electoral minority—would want to suppress their vote, and so it has been throughout the country. As Baruch College professors Waisanen, Jarvis, and Gordon write, there’s a bewildering array of requirements that seldom agree from district to district. Given that the federal government yields to states and the states to counties and even smaller political divisions in matters of electoral processes, the effect is that there are more than 3,000 systems in play. Some of them require a year’s worth of utility bills as identification, which disenfranchises students who live together, since those bills come just to one person. Some require driver’s licenses, which disenfranchises older voters who no longer drive. Some require a photo ID, securing which can take several trips and cost the equivalent of a week’s worth of groceries and more. Some demand a birth certificate, which many people do not have. In the end, the authors reckon, at least 25 million people are affected. They recommend that the federal government establish a uniform standard or, if not that, issue a form of binding voter identification, which “would be easily obtained or preferably provided by the government to US citizens upon birth or naturalization.” Given the power of inertia, this is perhaps unlikely, but the authors’ call for easier paths to voting as a fundamental right is important.

Essential for voting rights advocates and policymakers.

Kirkus Reviews