In this issue brief, The Century Foundation's Tova Andrea Wang looks back at how accusations of voter fraud have been used to justify actions that made it more difficult for less advantaged citizens in particular to cast ballots.

Introduction

Today, the topic of voter identification has become one of the hottest topics in the debate over election reform, both in Congress and in states across the country. The rationale for requiring photo voter identification at the polls, proponents argue, is that there is widespread fraud that must be stopped. Identification supporters continue to make this argument no matter how many times they are confronted with the facts: study after study and investigation after investigation show that polling place fraud of the sort that identification would prevent has rarely occurred. Meanwhile, thousands—perhaps millions—of eligible voters would be disenfranchised by such a requirement, affecting election outcomes. Identification requirements would be most likely to impede the poor, minorities, the disabled, the young, and the elderly—all groups that historically have tended to vote for Democrats. And identification advocates who raise concerns about voting place fraud are closely associated with the Republican party.

Tova Andrea Wang is a Democracy Fellow at The Century Foundation.