Electoral reforms, group resources, and Black, Latino and youth turnout

Though U.S. elections are free, individuals must pay the ‘costs of voting’ to participate. Scholars typically think of these costs as time, money, and civic skills. To pay these costs, voters need resources of free time, income, and knowledge of where and how to vote. Yet, the distribution of these resources are not even across society. Demographic groups like Black, Latino, and young Americans often lack resources to participate in politics compared to their white or older counterparts. At the same time changes to the registration or voting process, such as requiring a voter identification card (ID), allowing same-day registration, or automatically registering voters when they interact with government agencies (e.g., Department of Motor Vehicles), can alter the costs of voting. Though extensive previous research has examined how these changes to election laws affect voter turnout, existing work has not fully considered how state voting and registration laws effect voter turnout by racial, ethnic and age groups.

This dissertation seeks to add to the literature by examining how electoral reforms affect Black, Latino, and young Americans. The result show that there are significant discrepancies in the effects of state election laws when comparing older or white individuals to Black, Latino, or young individuals. These discrepancies result in electoral reforms affecting these groups to a large extent, whether measured by an index of electoral reforms or examining specific state laws such as automatic voter registration or voter identification laws. At the same time, group resources in the form of collective descriptive representation (the percent of the state legislature that is Black or Latino), can influence the effects of electoral reforms, as demonstrated by collective descriptive representation moderating the impact of voter ID requirements.