Federal judge defies Congress in ruling against Texas election reform

Federal Judge Xavier Rodriguez is defying both Congress and federal law by throwing out an ID requirement of Texas' election law for absentee ballots.

As part of its election reform efforts, and because of the increased use of absentee ballots by voters, Texas implemented a requirement that voters applying for an absentee ballot include the serial number of the voter’s driver’s license, personal ID card, or election identification certificate issued by the Texas Department of Safety. If voters don’t have any of these three IDs, they can provide the last four digits of their Social Security number. 

There is a final safety valve in the Texas requirement for anyone who doesn’t have an ID or doesn’t even have a Social Security number (a difficult scenario to imagine): such a voter simply has to include a statement that he or she has none of the required IDs or numbers.