How to Get Out the Vote in a Voter ID World

prospect.org — Voter ID laws create an unnecessary barrier to voting that disproportionately affects poor and nonwhite voters. If you’re going to have them, you should at least tell people that they're going into effect. But given the impetus of these laws, it's no surprise that few of the states that have passed them have made any effort to educate voters. The point of these laws is to decrease turnout among poor, nonwhite, young, and elderly voters—those more likely to vote Democratic—and thereby give Republicans an electoral advantage. Informing and preparing voters defeats the point. But conservative lawmakers are likely to keep pushing the laws, and voting-rights advocates could alleviate some of the harm by pushing for comprehensive plans to educate voters. Plus somewhere, a state might actually want to inform voters about what happened at the state capital. It all begs the question: What exactly would a good voter education campaign look like?

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