Browsing by Subject "disenfranchisement"

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    “I Don’t Want Everybody to Vote”: Christian Nationalism and Restricting Voter Access in the United States
    (Wiley, 2022-03) Perry, Samuel L.; Whitehead, Andrew L.; Grubbs, Joshua B.; Sociology, School of Liberal Arts
    Though the persistence of voter suppression and disenfranchisement in the US is well-documented, we still know little about their contemporary ideological underpinnings beyond partisanship and racial resentment. Highlighting the Christian Right’s influence in driving anti-democratic sentiment in the post-Civil Rights era, we propose contemporary ideological support for restricting the vote generally, and specifically, to those who prove “worthy,” is undergirded by a pervasive ideology that cloaks authoritarian ethno-traditionalism with the ultimacy and polysemic utility of religious language―Christian nationalism. Nationally representative data collected weeks before the November 2020 elections reveal Christian nationalism is a leading predictor that Americans deny that voter suppression is a problem, believe that the US makes it “too easy to vote,” believe that voter fraud is rampant, and support measures to disenfranchise individuals who could not pass a basic civics test or who committed certain crimes. Interactions show Christian nationalism’s influence is particularly strong among men across most outcomes and, regarding voter suppression, whites compared to Blacks. We argue Christian nationalism seeks to institutionalize founding ideals in which civic participation is rooted in hierarchies, being restricted to a “worthy” few. Appeals to America’s religious heritage thus facilitate stratifying America’s citizenry and justifying restricting participation to preserve dominance.
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    Photo ID, Provisional Balloting, and Indiana's 2012 Primary Election
    (2013) Pitts, Michael J.
    This article represents the continuation of a series of studies that measure the impact of photo identification on the electorate by examining provisional ballots cast and not counted because prospective voters lacked photo identification. Prior studies examined provisional balloting at Indiana’s 2008 primary and 2008 general elections. This article presents results from the 2012 primary and proceeds in two parts. Part I briefly discusses the details of Indiana’s photo identification law, the various methods used to measure the impact of photo identification laws generally, and the research methods employed for this study. Part II presents and analyzes the empirical data generated in this study and, notably, compares the impact of the photo identification law at Indiana’s 2008 primary election with the impact of the photo identification law at Indiana’s 2012 primary election.