The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that Texas may require voters applying to cast mail-in ballots to provide identification numbers that match state records. The decision reverses a lower court ruling from November 2023 that had struck down the requirement.
The three-judge panel concluded that the ID matching system is a legitimate method to prevent voter fraud and does not violate the Civil Rights Act. Judge James Ho wrote the opinion, joined by Judges Patrick Higginbotham and Don Willett. The court stated that the requirement is clearly designed to confirm that each mail-in voter is who they claim to be.
The ID provision is part of Senate Bill 1 (S.B. 1), a broad election law passed by Texas Republicans in 2021 following the 2020 presidential election. The law requires voters applying for mail ballots to provide a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number, which must match information in the state’s voter registration database.
The Biden administration’s Justice Department and several voting rights groups challenged the rule, arguing that the state’s database system is unreliable and has led to wrongful ballot rejections. A court filing indicated that more than 60,000 voter records showed mismatched ID numbers as of January 2023.
However, the appeals court disagreed with the lower court’s conclusion that the ID match was not material to determining voter eligibility. The ruling lifts a prior injunction that had blocked enforcement of the requirement, allowing Texas to continue implementing the ID verification system for mail-in voting.
