Election laws continue to be a divisive issue, with the nation's courts saying some voter ID laws are overly restrictive (looking at you, Texas) while also having freshly gutted the Voting Rights Act.
As with most contentious issues, Gallup conducted a poll to find out what Americans think of voting laws, and the takeaway is more nuanced than Democrats and Republicans believe. Early voting, which helps minorities turn out in higher numbers, is supported by 80% of people surveyed. But that same percentage also supports voter ID laws, which is intended to curb fraud but in practice makes it harder for minorities to vote.
A smaller majority, but still large enough to be a majority, even with a margin of error, supports automatic voter registration (63%).
Now, that’s not to say that there isn’t some partisan politics involved. By far, the single group that says that “votes being cast by people not eligible to vote” is a “major problem” is Republicans — 52% of respondents thought that. The region most worried about fraudulent voting? The South, with 42%, compared to 33% or 34% for the other three regions of the U.S.
Democrats, on the other hand, are 18% more likely than their Republican counterparts to believe that the major problem of the election is “eligible voters not being allowed to cast a vote.”
The South and the Midwest field the strongest support for voter ID laws, 84% each, and those two regions are home to the strongest eight voter ID laws in the country. Contrary to the narrative from the left, these regions also have the strongest support for early voting — 82% and 83%, respectively.
Shares