From USA TODAY:
The NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, two separate organizations, will release a report that finds the laws tend to suppress minority voting — a trend the report says emerged after unprecedented minority turnout in the 2008 election and Census figures that show people of color gaining a larger share of the population.
The report says 14 states have passed 25 laws in roughly the past year that put new restrictions on voters or voting. It suggests the measures are a reaction to the minority voter turnout in the 2008 general election, in which African-American voters had a higher turnout rate than white voters, as well as a reaction to Census figures that show that from 2000 to 2010, the white population grew by 1.2% while the black population grew by 12.3% and the Hispanic population by 43%. State officials have said the laws are meant to prevent voter fraud and make elections more efficient.
Voter ID laws are at the heart of the debate, according to the report. The authors maintain that such laws disproportionately target minorities. The report says about 25% of black Americans and about 16% of Latinos do not possess government-issued photo identification, compared with 8% of whites…
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