Friday, March 11, 2011

Who Doesn't Have a Photo ID in North Carolina?

In early February the NC State Board of Elections matched its database of 6.1 million voters with records at the Division of Motor Vehicles. The BOE found that 1 million voters -- not would-be voters, but actual voters -- did not have a NC driver's license or ID card with matching name and address.

An analysis of those 1,000,000 voters found the following:
114,000 matched except for a variation in name (e.g., women who changed their last name)

334,000 had additional mismatching info but also some indication they had an ID

Out of the remaining 554,000 voters, where no indication of a match existed, 95,000 are classified as "Inactive" registered voters; 460,500 are "Active" registered voters with no indication of a current and valid ID

Of those 460,500 "Active" registered voters with no ID, 276,006 are white

148,988 are over the age of 65

290,541 are women

111,665 are registered Republicans

Hmm. Since three of those four demographic groups -- white people, old people, and registered Republicans -- are increasingly the Republican base in NC, the GOP's proposed voter photo ID law might turn out to be a case of cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.

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