Electoral reforms, group resources, and Black, Latino and youth turnout
Creators: name: Coll, Joseph Alexander
Publisher: name: University of Iowa
Year: 2022
Subjects: Electoral reforms
Racial and ethnic voting behavior
Turnout
Youth voting behavior
public abstract

description: Electoral reforms influence the way citizens interact with the registration and voting process. Reforms that make the process easier, such as same-day registration, decrease the costs of participation and increase voting. Reforms that make the process more difficult, like voter identification requirements, can have the opposite effect. While this relationship may seem straightforward, it is often anything but. This study seeks to draw attention to the complex relationships between electoral reforms and voter turnout by examining the stratification of participatory resources among demographic groups and how electoral reforms affect voter turnout among racial, ethnic and age groups. The first empirical chapter examines how the resources needed to participate in politics differ at the intersection of age and race or ethnicity, and the differing effects of state laws regulating registration and voting at these intersections. As argued in this chapter, the race gap in resources (time, money, and civic skills) coupled with the age gap in resources (inertia and experience) puts young racial and ethnic voters in a ‘double bind’ that limits their ability to participate and heightens their sensitivity to changes in the costs of voting (i.e., change in state electoral laws). Analysis of election surveys and administrative panel data from a national voter file find that Latino youths, compared both to other youths and older Latinos, are less likely to vote as state voting and registration laws becomes more restrictive.
description: The second empirical chapter uses an augmented placebo test design to compare the effects of automatic voter registration (AVR) adoptions vs implementation on Black, Latino, and youth voter turnout. This chapter argues that AVR should increase the turnout of Black, Latino, and young voters due to the greater barrier of voter registration for these groups. Additionally, this study compares the effects of adoption of AVR vs implementation of AVR to examine whether endogeneity influences the effects of the election reform and examines the effects of AVR implementation on a subset of states that have adopted AVR to further alleviate concerns of endogeneity. Analysis of administrative individual-level panel data via national voter files finds AVR implantation, but not merely adoption, increased turnout among the general public, as well as Black, Latino, white, and young Americans.
description: The last empirical chapter addresses both the electoral reform and the descriptive representation literatures. This chapter argues collective descriptive representation (CDR), as measured by the percent of the state legislature that is Black or Latino, acts as a group resource that can counteract the negative effects of voter identification requirements. As such, this chapter examines the effects of CDR on Black and Latino turnout varying whether the respondent’s state requires photo identification to vote. Using administrative and election survey data, this study finds that Black Americans are less likely to cast a ballot in photo voter identification states than Black voters in states that do not require photo IDs under the condition of low Black collective descriptive representation, but are just as likely to vote as those in states without ID requirements when at least ¼ of the state legislature is Black. In line with this finding, the effects of collective descriptive representation are larger for Black Americans in states with voter ID laws than those in states without. However, Latino voters do not see similar affects, likely due to the larger barrier of voter IDs for Latino Americans and the biased administration of voter ID laws.