In 2000, four states--Arkansas, Georgia, Michigan and North Dakota--had enacted ID laws, none of them photo-based; they aimed to clarify voting rules, part of a trend that led to the Help America Vote Act, which was passed by a bipartisan vote in Congress in 2002. At the time, the idea of straightening out confusing differences in voting rules was noncontroversial: "why would any member of Congress oppose helping Americans vote?" the authors ask.
They observe that voter ID laws in general and photo ID laws specifically surged in 2006 and later, when the electorate became highly polarized.
(Article changed on January 21, 2016 at 15:53)
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