Court upholds Texas voter ID law which Dems had fled the state to protest

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday to uphold Texas’ voter ID requirement for mail-in ballots, a decision which President Donald Trump praised as “great news.”

A brief opinion from Trump-appointed Circuit Judge James Ho, stated that “mail-in ballots are not secure,” concluding that the Lone Star State’s “ID number requirement fully complies with a provision of federal law.” Trump posted on Truth Social that the decision to uphold voter ID requirements for mail-in ballots in Texas is “GREAT NEWS!!!” and that it “Should be Nationwide!!!”

Texas’ Election Integrity Protection Act of 2021 seeks “exercise the legislature’s constitutional authority … to make all laws necessary to detect and punish fraud,” according to its text. The unanimous three-judge panel ruling on Monday agreed that the ID requirement does not violate the “materiality provision of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.”

Democratic Texas state lawmakers tried to derail the voter ID legislation’s 2021 passage by fleeing the state and traveling to Washington, D.C. — employing a controversial tactic known as “quorum busting.” However, these efforts ultimately failed as Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the act into law in September 2021.

The Texas House on Monday issued arrest warrants for over 50 Democrats attempting to use the same tactic by fleeing Texas over the state’s Republican-backed mid-decade redistricting efforts.

The Monday ruling reverses U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez’s March verdict that the provisions of the Texas law in question discriminate against elderly voters and voters with disabilities.

The ruling upholding the act involves “number-matching requirements” that “are obviously designed to confirm that every mail-in voter is indeed who he claims he is” and determine “whether an individual is qualified to vote,” according to Ho.

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton brought attention to the possibility of voter fraud in Texas elections in June, investigating over 200 mail-in ballots cast by over 100 suspected noncitizens during the 2020 and 2022 election cycles.

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