Federal appeals court upholds Texas law requiring ID numbers for mail-in ballots
A voter uses a ballot drop box at the Bucks County Administration building voting on demand and ballot drop center in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, on October 31, 2024. (Photo by ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images)
A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled in favor of a Texas law that invalidates mail-in ballots without a voter’s state-identification number or partial Social Security number—a decision that drew a celebratory response from President Donald Trump.
The court ruled on Monday that the provision in the 2021 election integrity bill, Senate Bill 1 (known as S.B.1), did not violate a federal law in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prevents states from denying a person’s voting rights over paperwork errors that are otherwise irrelevant to the validity of ballots.
The panel was made up of two Trump appointees, U.S. Circuit Judge James C. Ho and U.S. Circuit Judge Don Willett, and Reagan appointee U.S. Circuit Judge Patrick Higginbotham.
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“We have no difficulty concluding that this ID number requirement fully complies with a provision of federal law known by the parties as the materiality provision of the 1964 Civil Rights Act,” the court’s opinion said.
“The number-matching requirements are obviously designed to confirm that every mail-in voter is who he claims he is,” Ho also wrote. “And that is plainly material to determining whether an individual is qualified to vote.”
The benefit of solid appellate judges cannot be overstated. A panel of the CA5 has ruled that a recent Texas law can be enforced after the lower court enjoined it. The law requires voter ID to cast a mail-in ballot. I love Judge Ho’s opening line: “Mail-in ballots are not… pic.twitter.com/mxsgh5lNh1
President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to express his excitement over the ruling on Monday:
“THIS IS GREAT NEWS!!! Should be Nationwide!!!” Trump wrote.
This ruling is only the most recent in the 5th Circuit Court’s efforts to ensure election integrity, as the court also ruled in March that mail-in ballots must arrive by Election Day to be counted.
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