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A Partisan Model of Electoral Reform: Voter Identification Laws and Confidence in State Elections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Shaun Bowler  and
Todd Donovan
Shaun Bowler
Affiliation:
University of California, Riverside, CA, USA
Todd Donovan*
Affiliation:
Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, USA
*
Todd Donovan, Department of Political Science, Western Washington University, MS 9082, Bellingham, WA 9825, USA. Email: todd.donovan@wwu.edu
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Abstract

We propose a model of public response to politicized election reform. In this model, rival partisan elites send signals on the need and consequences of a proposed reform, with partisans in public adopting those positions. We apply this to test how state use of voter identification laws corresponded with public evaluations of the conduct of a state's elections. We find that the relationship between photo identification laws and confidence in state elections was polarized and conditioned by party identification in 2014. Democrats in states with strict photo identification laws were less confident in their state's elections. Republicans in states with strict identification laws were more confident than others. Results suggest strict photo identification laws are failing to instill broad-based confidence in elections, and that the reform could correspond with diminished confidence among some.

Keywords

public opinionpublic policyelectoral systemselection rulespolitical behaviorparties and electionselectoral integrity
Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , September 2016 , pp. 340 - 361
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2016

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