A non-partisan government agency released a report Wednesday that shows states which toughened up their voter ID laws saw a decrease in turnout by African-Americans and young voters.

The Associated Press reported that the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative agency, released a study which looked at how the 33 states which have enacted laws obligating voters to show a photo ID at the polls are being affected.

The study also serves a purpose for both major parties, though.

Republicans have been pushing for broader support of tougher voter ID laws to reduce voter fraud, but Democrats, as proven by the study, believe that the voter turnout will be negatively affected.

The study compared election turnouts in four states --Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, and Maine -- that didn't change their requirements with the turnouts in Kansas and Tennessee, which tightened voter ID requirements between the 2008 and 2012 elections.

Voter turnout was reduced by between 2 and 3 percent in both the states that tightened up voter ID laws.

But the results of the study were not consistent across the board. When evaluating voter turnout from pre-2008, the changes were not the same.

Of 10 other studies that mostly focused on voting before 2008, five were not impacted at all by the change in laws; four saw decreases and one saw an increase, AP reported.

But that didn't stop Democrats, which tend to generally get the majority of the African-American and young votes, from using the study's results to support their argument against stricter voter ID laws.

"This study confirms the real impact of Republican efforts to limit access to the ballot box. Playing politics with the right to vote is a shameful practice," Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y, told AP.

The stricter voter laws, which involve presenting an ID at the polls, also had an added financial burden which may especially explain the reduction in young voters.

The study found that in 17 states, the costs of acquiring the required IDs ranged from $14.50 to $58.50, AP reported.