(TEXAS SCORECARD) – A federal judge ruled that a Texas law requiring voter ID for mail-in ballots unconstitutionally discriminates against disabled voters.
The challenged measure sought to align voter ID requirements for in-person voting and voting by mail.
U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez ordered that the state cannot require mail-ballot voters to provide an identification number that matches the person applying for a ballot to the person’s voter registration form.
Texas law allows voters who are 65 or older, have a disability, are in jail, or are out of their home county during an election to vote by mail. Plaintiffs argued that disabled voters are disproportionately impacted by the ID requirement.
Judge Rodriguez had previously ruled that Texas election officials could not reject mail-in ballots with wrong or missing identification numbers, asserting that providing a correct voter ID is “not material in determining whether voters are qualified under Texas law to vote or cast a mail ballot.”
Rodriguez’s latest order also blocked a provision of the law requiring people who assist voters to swear an oath under penalty of perjury that they did not coerce the voter into accepting assistance.
Both measures were part of Senate Bill 1, a comprehensive election integrity law enacted in 2021.
Several portions of SB 1—Republican-priority legislation that Democrats attempted to block by breaking quorum for more than a month—were challenged by nominally non-partisan civil rights and social advocacy groups, some aligned with the Democrat Party.
In September 2024, Rodriguez blocked SB 1’s ban on paid vote harvesting.
The following month, the judge enjoined state and county officials from investigating or prosecuting alleged violations of voter assistance provisions of SB 1.
Rodriguez noted in his March 14 order that “there is nothing to prevent the Texas legislature from amending the Election Code to revive an ID number component to the mail voting process … and granting election officials the ability to accept non-conforming [Applications for Ballot By Mail] and [Ballots By Mail] after confirming the voter’s identity by some other means.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed Rodriguez’s prior rulings against SB 1 and on Friday filed a motion to stay the judge’s latest order pending appeal.
The voter ID requirement will remain in effect for the upcoming May elections. Federal court precedent prescribes that voting rules should not be changed close to an election.