Texas can require people applying to vote by mail to submit identification numbers that match state records, a federal appeals court ruled.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the state in a legal battle brought by the Biden administration and several voting rights groups.
A three-judge panel found the ID match system is a valid way to prevent fraud and confirmed that it does not violate the Civil Rights Act. The court said the law is “obviously designed to confirm that every mail-in voter is indeed who he claims he is.”
Judge James Ho wrote the opinion, reversing a lower court decision from November 2023 that had struck down the number match requirement.
That lower court had argued the match was not material in determining voter eligibility. But the Fifth Circuit disagreed, saying it had “no difficulty” concluding that the law is compliant. The ruling lifts the prior injunction that had been paused by the court in December 2023.
The ID requirement is part of S.B. 1, a wide-ranging election law passed by Texas Republicans in 2021 in the wake of the 2020 election.
