A new article published in the American Political Science Review raises disturbing questions about the discrimination faced by minorities throughout their interactions with the electoral system.
The study, conducted by three Harvard University graduate students, seeks to answer the question of whether “street-level bureaucrats discriminate in the services they provide to constituents.” The authors contacted over 7,000 elections officials by email to request information about an upcoming election concerning voting requirements. The emails were signed by either a Latino alias (‘Jose Martinez’ or ‘Luis Rodriguez’), or a non-Latino white alias (‘Jake Mueller’ or ‘Greg Walsh’). The study found that election officials were over 5% less likely to respond to questions about voter ID requirements that were signed by a Latino name than by a non-Latino name. Furthermore, the replies to questions about voter ID requirements that election officials sent to the Latino aliases were 4.5% less likely to be absolutely accurate than replies sent to the non-Latino aliases.
h/t Star-Ledger Editorial Board.
Keir Lamont is a legal intern with Project Vote.