‘Mail-In Ballots Are Not Secure’: Court Gives Texas Green Light To Enforce Voter ID Law

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday unanimously rejected the Biden administration’s challenge to a Texas law requiring mail-in ballots to include a state identification number or partial Social Security number.

The law invalidates mail-in ballots that do not include the information.

In September 2021, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott signed the Election Integrity and Protection Act into law. It was immediately challenged by the Biden administration and other leftist groups, including the League of Women Voters, who claimed the law violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In November 2023, U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez struck down the provision of the Texas law requiring voters who used mail-in ballots to provide identification numbers.

But last December, the 5th Circuit Court paused the 2023 injunction, and on Monday, it dismissed the lower court’s claims. “Mail-in ballots are not secure,” staunch conservative Judge James Ho wrote, adding that the law “fully complies with a provision of federal law known by the parties as the materiality provision of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. … 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.”

“Merely requiring mail-in ballot applications to list the voter’s name and registration address triggers significant election security concerns. That information is easily available to anyone who simply requests it from Texas election officials — who readily provide copies of voter files with such information on request. As a result, any person can request and receive that 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,” he continued.

“Plaintiffs insist that there isn’t enough evidence to show that the ID number requirement would meaningfully reduce voter fraud. Texas strongly disagrees. Our precedents compel us to side with Texas. We have made clear that States have a legitimate interest in combating voter fraud, and this enjoy ‘considerable discretion in deciding what is an adequate level of effectiveness to serve (their) important interests in voter integrity,” Ho concluded.