The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday ruled Texas can enforce a law requiring ID numbers for mail-in ballots.
A three-judge panel unanimously overturned a lower court’s block on the state’s mail-in ballot requirements.
The three judges included: Judge James Ho (Trump), Judge Don Willett (Trump), and Judge Patrick Higginbotham (Reagan).
“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 judges ruled.
“The ID number requirement is obviously designed to confirm that each mail-in ballot voter is precisely who he claims he is. And that is plainly “material” to “determining whether such individual is qualified under State law to vote,”” the judges worote.
“The district court reached the opposite conclusion. So we reverse and render judgment for Defendants,” they said.
Politico reported:
A federal appeals court has ruled that Texas may enforce a state law that invalidates mail-in ballots submitted without a voter’s state identification number or partial Social Security number.
A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the requirement the Texas Legislature enacted in 2021 as part of an election-integrity bill known as SB1 did not violate a federal law preventing states from imposing voting requirements “not material” to the validity of ballots.
In a brusque, nine-page opinion, Judge James Ho twice said the appeals panel had “little difficulty” concluding that Texas’ law was valid.
“The number-matching requirements are obviously designed to confirm that every mail-in voter is who he claims he is,” Ho wrote for the panel. “And that is plainly material to determining whether an individual is qualified to vote.”
President Trump celebrated the Fifth Circuit Court’s unanimous ruling.
