Your Typical Criminal: Why White Americans Hate Voter Fraud.

The article examines how racial and ethnic stereotypes shape white Americans' beliefs about voter fraud and their support for restrictive voting policies and harsh punishments for illegal voting. Using nationally representative data from the Cooperative Election Study (CES) between 2017 and 2020, the study applies typification theory to show that many white respondents disproportionately perceive Black, Latino, immigrant, and Arab individuals as typical perpetrators of voter fraud. These racialized perceptions strongly correlate with increased beliefs in the frequency of voter fraud, support for voter ID laws, opposition to felon enfranchisement, and endorsement of punitive measures. An embedded survey experiment further reveals that antipathy toward Latinos intensifies punitive attitudes when the accused illegal voter is identified as a Mexican immigrant rather than an Irish immigrant. The findings highlight that public opinion on voter fraud is deeply racialized, influencing election integrity policies and potentially leading to unequal treatment in the criminal justice system.