Texas Voter ID Match Law Blessed by Fifth Circuit in Reversal

Texas can make people applying to vote by mail provide identification numbers that must match the state’s data, the Fifth Circuit said Monday.

A three-judge panel ruled against a challenge from the Biden administration and voting rights groups in holding that Texas’ system for rooting out potential fraud is “obviously designed to confirm that every mail-in voter is indeed who he claims he is.”

The decision from Judge James Ho reverses a November 2023 district court ruling that struck down the number match provision, saying the system isn’t material in determining voter eligibility. The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit already disagreed with the lower court before Monday, pausing the injunction in December 2023.

The number match system is material in determining if a person is eligible to vote, Ho wrote, adding that the panel had “no difficulty” in finding that it complies with the Civil Rights Act.

The ID match is part of a sweeping election integrity bill Texas lawmakers passed in 2021 following Republican claims of fraud in the 2020 election. The law, known as S.B. 1, is the subject of several lawsuits.

The Biden administration sued Texas to block the voter ID match, saying the state’s system that maintains IDs is flawed and prone to unjustified ballot rejections.

In a filing in the case, lawyers opposing the system showed that as of January 2023 more than 60,000 records in a state voter database contain a Department of Public Safety number that differs from the number associated with that voter in the DPS’s own database.

During oral arguments in February, the judges asked no questions of the lawyer defending the law from the Texas attorney general’s office, signaling their support for the ID match system.

Senior Judge Patrick Higginbotham and Judge Don Willett joined Ho.

The plaintiffs are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, Disability Rights Texas, Texas Civil Rights Project, Justice Department, and DNC. America First Policy Institute, the Texas Attorney General’s Office, and Jones Day represent the defendants.

The case is U.S. v. Paxton, 5th Cir., No. 23-50885, 8/4/25.