5th Circuit upholds Texas restrictions on mail voting

 Wall Street Journal:

Is mass mail voting here to stay? It certainly looks that way: Last year 30.3% of voters cast ballots by mail, down from 43% in 2020, but higher than before Covid. That’s according to a recent report by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, which also says 580,000 mail ballots, or 1.2%, were rejected, half for signature problems.

That’s an argument for voting in person, as well as for states to button up their absentee rules. Yes, Democrats will shout “voter suppression,” but then they’ll likely lose in court. Last week a panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2021 Texas law that generally requires mail voters to verify identity via a state ID number or the last four digits of a Social Security number (SSN4).

As Judge James Ho writes for the unanimous panel, Texas reserves mail voting for people who are elderly, disabled, incarcerated, or out of state. Before 2021, a voter requesting a ballot merely needed to sign an application and give a name and registration address. It was hardly secure, Judge Ho says, since that information is in the public voter file and “easily available to anyone who simply requests it.”

A federal judge blocked the new ID rule in 2023, citing the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which forbids denying the franchise based on paperwork errors that are “not material” in determining voter eligibility. “It is self-evident that a voter’s ID number is not material,” the judge said. “A person’s SSN4 does not change when he turns 18, registers to vote, moves into or out of the state of Texas, is convicted of a felony or judged mentally incompetent, or even dies.”

Well, a person’s signature also doesn’t change the day he turns 18 or becomes a felon. By that logic, does it violate the Civil Rights Act to make voters sign their ballots? The Fifth Circuit panel rejects this logic.

“The number-matching requirements are obviously designed to confirm that every mail-in voter is indeed who he claims he is,” Judge Ho says. “And that is plainly material to determining whether an individual is qualified to vote.” How could it be otherwise? Administering any election requires setting rules for where to vote and how to cast a valid ballot. As long as those procedures are neutral and de minimis, they are usually taken as a given.
...

I have always voted in person except for when I was in the Marine Corps and was stationed outside the state, such as in Quantico, Virginia, or Vietnam. I actually like voting in person and interacting with the people running the elections.

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