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Swing State Voters Strongly Favor Voter ID Laws

Voters / AP
May 10, 2016

Voters in swing states Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania are strongly in favor of requiring photo identification in order to vote, a Quinnipiac poll revealed Tuesday.

Potential voters in Florida were most supportive of voter ID laws, with 77 percent supporting and 20 percent opposing voter ID requirements.

Among likely Democratic voters in the Sunshine State, 60 percent supported voter ID laws while 36 percent opposed the laws.

Support for voter ID laws in Ohio was almost as pronounced. Seventy-five percent of potential voters in Ohio favored photo ID requirements while only 22 percent opposed the laws.

Democratic voters were more evenly split, with 50 percent supporting and 48 percent opposing voter ID laws.

"Ohioans ... are overwhelmingly in favor of requiring a photo ID for anyone wanting to vote," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll.

Opinions on voter ID laws in Pennsylvania were more split than the other two states, but supporters of voter ID laws still outnumbered opponents by 30 percentage points, with 64 percent supporting and 34 percent opposing the laws.

Republicans supported the laws 94 to 6 percent, while Democrats opposed them 56 to 40 percent.

Quinnipiac underscored the importance of Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania in determining presidential elections, noting that no candidate has won the presidential race since 1960 without winning at least two of the three states.

Voter ID laws have been enacted in 33 states. Republicans contend such laws are necessary to prevent voter fraud.

Hillary Clinton has criticized voter ID laws in the past, going so far as to call Alabama’s photo ID requirement a "blast from the Jim Crow past." Clinton says the laws disproportionately impact African-American voters.