In 2007, a report prepared by the staff of the federal Election Assistance Commission found that, among experts, "there is widespread but not unanimous agreement that there is little polling place fraud".[22] The report was based on research conducted by Job Serebov, Republican elections lawyer, and Tova Wang, voting expert from the Century Foundation.[22]

The final version released to the public, however, stated that there was "a great deal of debate on the pervasiveness of fraud."[22] Democrats charged that the commission, with a Republican majority, had altered the conclusion for political reasons, which the commission denied.[22] During the George W. Bush administration, "The [Department of Justice] devoted unprecedented resources to ferreting out polling-place fraud over five years and appears to have found not a single prosecutable case across the country," Slate reported.[23]

The Democratic Party fought the voter identification laws, calling them the GOP war on Voting and a return of Jim Crow disenfranchisement. Civil rights groups were vocal about the laws, saying they disproportionately hurt blacks and Latinos.[24] According to another report commissioned by the Election Assistance Commission, one effect of voter identification laws is lower turnout, especially among members of minorities.[22]

On June 23, 2012, Pennsylvania's Speaker of the House, Republican Mike Turzai stated that Pennsylvania's recent voter identification law would "allow Governor [Mitt] Romney to win Pennsylvania"[25] in the 2012 U.S. Presidential election.[26][27]
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