MADISON (WKOW) -- 11.2 percent of registered voters in Dane and Milwaukee counties were deterred from casting ballots in the 2016 presidential election because of Wisconsin's Voter ID law, according to a survey conducted by a UW-Madison political science professor.
Dr. Ken Mayer published his findings based on surveys filled out by 2,400 registered voters in the two counties who did not vote last November.
11.2 percent would correspond to 16.801 people, according to Mayer.
The survey further found six percent of those non-voters were either prevented from voting because they lacked ID, or cited a lack of ID as the main reason they didn't vote.
27 percent of African-American voters said they were deterred from voting, compared to just eight percent of white voters. Income also played a role in the findings, with 21 percent of people with less than $25,000 per year in household income saying they were deterred from voting.
That compares to less than three percent of registered voters with household incomes of over $100,000, saying they were deterred.
"The main conclusion of the study is that thousands, and perhaps tens of thousands, of otherwise eligible people were deterred from voting by the ID law," said Mayer. "The 11.2% figure is actually a lower bound since it does not include people who don't even register because they lack an ID. And while the total number affected in Milwaukee and Dane Counties is smaller than the margin of victory in the 2016 presidential election, that is the wrong measure. An eligible voter who cannot vote because of the ID law is disenfranchised, and that in itself is a serious harm to the integrity to the electoral process."
For more on this story: http://www.wkow.com/story/36450606/2017/09/25/uw-survey-11-didnt-vote-in-2016-due-to-wisconsin-voter-id-law