A federal appeals court has reinstated key portions of a Texas election law requiring identification information on mail-in ballot applications and ballots, overturning a lower court decision that had blocked the provisions in March.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals restored several requirements contained in Senate Bill 1, the Election Protection and Integrity Act of 2021, which made sweeping changes to the state’s election procedures.
Among other provisions, the law revised certain voting registration requirements, imposed identification requirements for voting by mail, required individuals assisting voters to sign an oath affirming that they did not coerce the voter, and established new election fraud offenses.
State Sen. Bryan Hughes, a Republican from Mineola who authored the legislation, has maintained that the changes are intended to make voting more accessible while strengthening safeguards against fraud.
“These are common sense reforms, and we’re going to stand by them,” Hughes said to Nexstar following the federal appeals court opinion.
The legislation prompted multiple lawsuits from voting rights organizations, which argued, among other claims, that provisions of the law violated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Texans who vote by mail are predominantly people age 65 and older or those who qualify because of a disability.
After SB 1 took effect, a Brennan Center for Justice study found that approximately one in seven Texans who sought mail-in ballots had their applications rejected. Many of those rejections occurred because voters either omitted an identification number or provided one that did not correspond with the identification information contained in the state’s voter registration records.
For instance, a voter who initially registered using a Social Security number but subsequently placed a Texas identification number on a mail ballot application could encounter a mismatch under the new system.
The 5th Circuit rejected concerns that the initial level of rejected applications and ballots demonstrated an ongoing problem, pointing to evidence that rejection rates fell sharply as election officials and voters became accustomed to the requirements.
“The number of mail-in application or mail-in ballot rejections caused by missing or mismatched identification numbers dropped from 11 or 12 percent to 2.7 percent in just eight months. And officials testified that the numbers will ‘continue to decline’ because Texas’s identification database will ‘continue to get more robust,’ and voters will ‘get more used to’ the new procedures,” the federal appeals opinion reads.
Hughes similarly argued that the rejection rate has continued declining as Texans have become more familiar with how the identification system operates.
“We believe that rate continues to come down as people learn about the process and become more familiar with it,” Hughes said.
The Texas Secretary of State’s Office advises mail-in voters to provide both their Texas identification number and the last four digits of their Social Security number on their application and ballot. As long as one of those numbers matches the information contained in the state’s records, the ballot can be accepted.
Looking ahead to the Texas Legislature’s 2027 session, Hughes said he does not anticipate pursuing “major wholesale” changes to the state’s election system. He said, however, that lawmakers are likely to continue examining possible measures aimed at strengthening election security.
