In a win for election integrity, a unanimous federal appeals court has upheld Texas’s law requiring voter ID for mail-in ballots.
The State has a legitimate interest in preventing voter fraud, and the law’s ID requirements serve that interest, the court ruled.
Judge James Ho wrote the opinion on behalf of the three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Mail-in voting is particularly susceptible to fraud. In Texas, the court points out, anyone can request and receive basic 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”—making it easy to cheat.
In 2021, the Texas Legislature passed the Election Protection and Integrity Act to address the security of mail-in voting, which is only allowed in limited circumstances: for the elderly, disabled, incarcerated, and those out of state during the voting period.
The Act requires voters who wish to vote by mail to provide an identification number—such as a driver’s license, social security, or other personal identification number—on both their mail-in ballot applications and on the mail-in ballots themselves. If the voter fails to comply or the numbers don’t match up, the voting application or the mail-in ballot is rejected.
As soon as the law was enacted, its opponents pounced, filing multiple lawsuits in federal district court. The plaintiffs, including both the U.S. government and several advocacy groups, alleged the Texas statute violated a section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 known as the materiality provision.
The materiality provision forbids denying the right to vote to an individual because of an “error or omission” in his application, “if such error or omission is not material in determining whether such individual is qualified under State law to vote in such election.” (emphasis added).
Making sure the voter is who he says he is—and therefore eligible to vote—seems pretty “material.” However, the district court sided with the plaintiffs and blocked Texas from enforcing the number-matching requirements. Texas, joined by several Republican committees, then appealed.
Yesterday, the Fifth Circuit reversed the district court’s ruling and upheld the Texas law, finding it “easily complies” with the materiality provision of the Civil Rights Act.
You can always count on Judge Ho to cut to the chase, and he did not disappoint: “The number-matching requirements are obviously designed to confirm that every mail-in voter is indeed who he claims he is. And that is plainly material to determining whether an individual is qualified to vote.”
Moreover, “States have a legitimate interest in combating voter fraud,” Judge Ho wrote, “and thus enjoy considerable discretion in deciding what is an adequate level of effectiveness to serve their important interests in voter integrity.”
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