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New voting restrictions affect millions

An mid-term election worker deposits a voter's ballot in a secured voting box at the Denver Election Center on October 27, 2010 in Denver. UPI/Gary C. Caskey
An mid-term election worker deposits a voter's ballot in a secured voting box at the Denver Election Center on October 27, 2010 in Denver. UPI/Gary C. Caskey | License Photo

NEW YORK, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- More than 5 million Americans will face new restrictions on voting passed by more than a dozen states, a study released Monday said.

The restrictions will have the greatest impact on young, minority, low-income and disabled voters, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law found.

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Some of the states will require voters to show government-issued photo identification, often a type as many as 10 percent of voters don't have. Other states have cut back on early voting, made it more difficult to register voters through voter-registration drives or reversed earlier reforms that gave the right to vote to those with criminal convictions who are now taxpayers.

"A shift that could change the electoral landscape is under way -- the tightening of restrictions on who can vote and how Americans can vote," the study said. "Going into the 2012 elections, there will be millions of Americans who will find that since 2008, there are new barriers that could prevent them from voting."

The states that have cut back on voting rights will account for 171 electoral votes, or 63 percent, of the total of 270 needed to win the presidency, the study found.

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The new photo-ID laws will affect 3.2 million voters in five states -- Kansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin -- while 1 million to 2 million will be affected by new laws cutting back on early voting in Florida, Georgia and Ohio, the study said.

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