The results came from a statewide telephone survey conducted in October. There were 1,000 interviews with registered voters, with a margin of potential sampling error of 3.1 percent, and 500 interviews among non-registered adults with a margin of error of 4.4 percent. Researchers oversampled low-income residents and black people, conducting more interviews for a more reliable result.
Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita, a Republican and a defendant in the case, has said the law simply prevents voter fraud. He has said, "This case has been through the courts and, more importantly, it's been in the court called Election Day."
He was not available for immediate comment on the study Tuesday.
The Indiana law, enacted in 2005, was upheld by a federal judge and by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. Before the law passed, Indiana voters had only to sign poll books at the polling place, where photocopies of their signatures were kept on file for comparison.
Courts have upheld voter ID laws in Arizona and Michigan, but struck down Missouri's. Earlier this month, a federal judge dismissed a challenge to Georgia's law, saying the statute did not impose a significant burden on the right to vote.
Election law experts had urged the Supreme Court to take the Indiana case to instruct courts on how to weigh claims of voter fraud versus those of disenfranchisement. The court is expected to issue a decision by late June 2008, in time for the November general election, which includes the race for president.
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