Who Gets to Vote? Racialized Mental Images of Legitimate and Illegitimate Voters

When people support voter identification (ID) laws, who do they imagine they are keeping in and out of the voting booth? We investigated this question across three studies. First, using a traditional survey approach, we found support for voter ID laws was associated with beliefs that ID requirements reduce illegal voting by both Black and White people to the same degree. Because explicit surveys are vulnerable to social desirability concerns, in the following two studies, we utilized an indirect measure, reverse correlation, to investigate mental images of those who try to vote illegally (Study 2) and mental images of those who should and should not get to vote (Study 3). The findings of these studies suggest that support for voter ID laws is associated with racially biased perceptions of illegal voters and who should get to vote. Critically, these biased perceptions may be underestimated by traditional explicit survey approaches.

Open Data in Elections: Why It Is Needed and What Can Be Done to Make More Progress

The discussion on how technology can be applied to improve the integrity and transparency of elections often focuses on complex and expensive technologies such as biometrics, electronic voting and voter identification systems. Something unfortunately mentioned far less often is the potential to apply technology in a way that is not only much cheaper, but also arguably more efficient—the use of online tools that provide access to elections-related information based on open data principles. is indeed unfortunate as the absence of at least rudimentary open data approaches in elections can undo and even reverse the integrity gains brought about by other technologies and measures.

A Blockchain-Based Voting System for E-Elections in Totalitarian States

The purpose of the present research was to introduce a blockchain-based voting system so that any state, including totalitarian states, can show interest in using it. In this method, a hybrid voting system with two centralized and distributed systems was used. Its centralized system is one of the most common voter identification and polling models, and its distributed system, which is designed with Ethereum public blockchain, is voting for voters. Totalitarian states are not interested in announcing the results online. Also, the lack of trust in E-voting systems by both states and voters has led to E-voting in important political elections in most states as support for manual or paper voting. Based on the results of field research with this voting system, it was possible to create a 7 min break between the end of the voting process and the announcement of the results for political considerations. This break can be increased by agreement. The results of the votes cannot be manipulated in any way. Survey results should also be communicated to voters before the voting process. This voting system can improve the level of democracy and maximum participation. It is hoped that the spread of distributed technologies, especially the blockchain, will pave the way for the spread of justice and democracy around the world.

Time to Think of Voting as a Privilege

This was one of SCSS president Stephen M. Krason’s “Neither Left nor Right, but Catholic” columns that appeared in The Wanderer. In the wake of the controversy about the integrity and legitimacy of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, which was caused in significant part by changes in voting procedures to make it utterly easy to register and vote and even downplayed voter identification requirements. Krason argues that these changes have been precipitated by the ingraining of the view that voting should be understood as a right and if we think of voting not as a right but a privilege—and a corresponding duty, as a means to check a tendency to overreaching and corrupt government—such problems and abuses could be avoided.

The Suppressive Impacts of Voter Identification Requirements

Political observers argue that the United States is in a contemporary era of voter suppression. We study one mechanism that may limit voter participation, the requirement to show identification documents at the polls—voter ID policy. Voting rights advocates have raised concerns about disparate impacts of voter restrictions on racial minorities. However, past studies have reported conflicting results. Analyzing nationally representative data from the Current Population Survey across nine election years, we show that voter ID policies, and especially “strict photo ID policies,” have a suppressive effect on participation. Voter ID requirements can reduce the probability of self-reported voting by as much as four percentage points, enough to swing a national election. While we found suppressive effects of ID policies for all racial groups, we show that Latino citizens face disproportionately negative suppressive effects of strict ID policies.