NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Tennessee Democratic Congressman Jim Cooper and community leaders are urging people to vote this election cycle following a recent report that shows states that toughened their voter identification laws saw steeper drops in election turnout than those that did not.
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Cooper organized the news conference held in Nashville on Wednesday, the first day of early voting.
A Government Accountability Office report compared election turnout in Kansas and Tennessee – which tightened voter ID requirements between the 2008 and 2012 elections – to voting in four states that didn’t change identification requirements.
In Tennessee, the report estimated reductions in voter turnout were 2 percent to 3 percent steeper than in the other states.
