This April, civil rights scholar and former FEC Commissioner Hans Von Spakovsky released findings from the 2022 election showing that states with robust voter integrity laws showed no signs of “voter suppression.” To the contrary, turnout had increased from previous years. This data builds upon years of studies that continue to show that commonsense integrity reforms promote confidence, inspire trust, and are vital to free and fair elections.
According to the study, states that enacted election integrity laws before the 2022 election, like Georgia, Florida, and Texas, generally outperformed the national average when it came to voter turnout. For example, Georgia strengthened its voter ID laws (expanding them to mail-in balloting) and went from 18th in voter turnout in 2018 to 13th. With a 52.6% turnout rate, it beat the national average by 6 points. Florida banned private funding of elections and also strengthened its voter ID laws. Its turnout rate beat the national average by almost 3 points.
The study also confirms that voters want states to do more to promote and protect election integrity. Public support for voter ID requirements is strong across all demographics, including among Democrats and minorities. Polls consistently show that a majority of voters, regardless of race, believe that people should be required to show photo identification before casting their votes. A Gallup poll in 2022 found that 80% of white voters and 74% of nonwhite voters support voter ID.
Moreover, according to the study, election integrity measures streamline election administration and positively affect voters. Georgia is once again a case study. In 2021, after President Biden said the state’s election integrity measures were “Jim Crow on steroids,” Major League Baseball pulled its All-Star game from the state, inflicting millions of dollars in damages on its citizens. Now, however, we know that voters overwhelmingly had an “excellent” experience while voting under the new law, and hardly any voters reporting they had a “poor” experience. Among black voters, 91.6% said voting was “easier” or there was “no difference” between 2020 and 2022. The same was true for white voters, with 93.4% indicating that voting was either easier or the same.
The latest data from the 2022 election and previous long-term analyses continue to discredit the claim that commonsense election reforms, including voter ID laws, suppress voter turnout. The evidence demonstrates that these reforms neither impede registration nor discourage voting. Instead, they contribute to the health of our elections and our democratic process.
Read the full report here.
