On August 17, U.S. District Court Judge Xavier Rodriguez, a Bush Jr. appointee, struck down a Texas law passed in 2021 that requires a voter to list either his or her Drivers License Number, Personal ID Number, or the last 4 digits of the Social Security Number, on the application for a mail ballot or on the mail ballot itself. The voter must choose (from these three types of numbers) whichever number that voter used when he registered to vote, no matter how long ago that voter registered.
If the voter can’t remember which of the three types of numbers were used on the voter registration form, and chooses one of the other numbers, the application to vote by mail is rejected, or the mail ballot itself is rejected.
Here is the eight-page order in La Union del Pueblo Entero v Abbott, w.d., 5:21cv-0844. The judge will issue a further explanation soon. The ruling is based on the “materiality” portion of the 1964 federal civil rights law, section 101, which says that “no person acting under color of law shall…deny the right of any individual to vote in any election because of an error or omission on any record of paper relating to any application, or other act requisite to voting, if such error or omission is not material in determining whether such individual qualified under state law to vote in such election.” This law, little-known, is potentially very powerful and logically ought to be applied to trivial errors in ballot access petitions.
