States of Confusion

How Our Voter ID Laws Fail Democracy and What to Do About It

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

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781479807925
• eBook ISBN:
  9781479807949
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Public Law
• Index: Law

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction: Voting Made Difficult
• 1. On the Ground: The Reality of Voter ID Requirements
• 2. Understanding the Problem: What We Need to Know
• 3. Different Perspectives: Citizens, Election Offices, and Nonprofits
• 4. Breaking Down the System: Problems, Challenges, and Opportunities
• 5. Taking a Closer Look: Voter IDs in Everyday Life
• 6. How to Fix the Problem: Implementing Realistic Solutions
• Conclusion: Closing the Gap between Citizens and Voting
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix A: Strict Voter ID States Documentation Requirements
• Appendix B: Examples of Costs
• Appendix C: Research Instruments
• Appendix D: Election-Related Resources for Nonprofits and Community Organizations
• Notes
• Index
• About the Authors