The Statistical Role in Voter Identification (ID) Laws

Abstract

Many public policy issues have at their core statistical issues. It is extremely important that these issues be addressed by statisticians, and their findings must be explained to the public, legislators, and judges. The recent Voter Identification bills passed by a number of state legislatures are a case in point. This article summarizes the statistical issues at the heart of the recent court case between the State of Texas and the Federal government over the Voter ID legislation passed in that state. The Federal court ruled that, “all of Texas's evidence… is some combination of invalid, irrelevant, and unreliable.”.