For various reasons, I generally do not quote the New York Times opinion page. However, on days when they have the decency to cite research I have worked on, I make an exception. (Actually, kudos to our collaborator, Lonna Atkeson, a very distinguished political scientist at the University of New Mexico, who identified this issue and worked with Mike and I on a paper that is currently under review, where we discuss these findings in depth).

The editorial overall is interesting but the key sentence–where they reference our work–is below.

“Another problem is that such laws are often applied in a discriminatory way. A study in New Mexico found that Hispanic voters were significantly more likely than non-Hispanics to be asked to show the legally required ID.”

One of the really interesting issues here, to address the question many likely are thinking, is that this finding is independent of the race of the poll worker; Hispanic and White poll workers alike ID Hispanic voters more frequently than they ID white voters.