By Carter Skolnick and Jesse Luong
In our podcast, we examined the connections between common Republican rhetoric of voter ID, low voter turnout within the American democratic system and voter ID laws. The legitimacy of American votes has become a central issue in the 2016 election with Trump making repeated claims and accusation of widespread voter fraud. However, this is not a recent issue since, in recent years, Republicans have repeatedly pushed for more restrictions on voting while justifying these restrictions by claiming they protect against “illegal votes.” We examined these allegations of voter fraud and their credibility alongside effects of voter ID laws on voter turnout.