Racial Imagery and Support for Voter ID Laws

The limited research on public support for voter identification (ID) laws suggests that informational cues can shape opinions about the topic. We test whether two forms of cues — framing and racial imagery — affect support for voter ID laws, both individually and in conjunction with one another. Our data come from a 2x3 survey experiment embedded in the 2012 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES) (N=1,436) randomizing question wording (balanced framing versus “stripped” wording) and racial imagery (African American voter, White voter, or no image). We find that both framing and imagery influence opinion. Imagery also influences the extent to which racial resentment predicts opinion among White respondents. The effects of imagery on opinion emerge under stripped wording but not balanced framing