Texas is permitted to enforce its law dismissing mail-in ballots without a voter’s identification number, a federal appeals court ruled on Monday.
The three-judge panel, led by U.S. Circuit Judge James Ho for the Fifth Circuit, said it had “no difficulty” concluding that Texas’s identification requirement was valid and consistent with federal law. A provision in the 1964 Civil Rights Act prevented states from imposing voting requirements that are “not material” to the validity of ballots. The judges found that the Texas law did not meet the bar set by that provision.
“The number-matching requirements are obviously designed to confirm that every mail-in voter is who he claims he is,” Ho wrote in the nine-page opinion. “And that is plainly material to determining whether an individual is qualified to vote.”
Texas argued the 2021 law would prevent voter fraud, while the Biden administration and civil rights groups contended it would disqualify a large number of valid ballots for minor errors.
The circuit judges said the voter’s name and registration address on a ballot were insufficient to combat election fraud.
“That information is easily available to anyone who simply requests it from Texas election officials,” Ho wrote. “As a result, any person can request and receive that information about a registered voter, use that information to apply for a mail-in ballot, and then cast the ballot, with minimal risk of detection.”
The Trump-appointed judge was joined in the decision by Judge Don Willett, another Trump appointee, and Judge Patrick Higginbotham, a Reagan appointee.
“Our precedents compel us to side with Texas,” the opinion states. “We have made clear that States have a legitimate interest in combating voter fraud.”
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President Donald Trump said the ruling was “great news” for Republican-led election integrity efforts, adding that the entire nation should be able to require voter identification numbers for mail-in ballots.
Monday’s ruling comes months after a similar one issued by Ho and two other judges on the Fifth Circuit appeals court required mail-in ballots to be submitted by Election Day for a proper count.