Voter ID Laws Are A Bad Way To Steal An Election

Nate Cohn doubts that voter ID laws have major effects:

[T]here isn’t very much evidence that voter ID costs Democrats a large number of voters. Even the best studies are pretty weak, and we can point to states like Georgia and Indiana, where voter ID laws were enacted and Obama made unusually large gains. That doesn’t mean that voter-ID doesn’t help Republicans at all. Nor does it justify disenfranchising voters, no matter how few. And it’s possible that stricter laws, like the one under consideration in Texas, will have a larger impact. But to date, the consequences of voter-ID are nearly imperceptible.

In a follow-up, Cohn examines data from North Carolina:

Obama’s share of the vote in North Carolina might have dropped from 48.3 to 48 percent, expanding Romney’s margin of victory from 92,000 to about 120,000 votes. 25,000 to 30,000 votes could flip a very close election, but nothing more. In 2012, no state was so close. … If you want voter ID because you think you’ll steal Pennsylvania, or you’re opposed because you’re concerned it’s a Democratic apocalypse, move on. It’s not the apocalypse, even if it is an affront to voting rights.