Voter Suppression

Research by Keith Bentele and Erin O'Brien at the University of Massachusetts shows that voter restrictions were more likely to be proposed in states where greater numbers of minorities and lower income people voted.  Restrictions were more likely to be passed when Republicans controlled the state government.

Update (April 23, 2014):  The Republican election strategy starts with disenfranchisement.

Update (July 31, 2016):  Court rulings have overturned some voting restrictions. The law in North Carolina was especially harsh. From the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit:

[I]n what comes as close to a smoking gun as we are likely to see in modern times, the State’s very justification for a challenged statute hinges explicitly on race — specifically its concern that African Americans, who had overwhelmingly voted for Democrats, had too much access to the franchise.

Faced with this record, we can only conclude that the North Carolina General Assembly enacted the challenged provisions of the law with discriminatory intent.