Why Texas election officials are rejecting hundreds of vote-by-mail applications

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/20/ [login to see] /why-texas-election-officials-are-rejecting-hundreds-of-vote-by-mail-applications
Several counties in Texas have reported rejecting hundreds of vote-by-mail applications in the past week because of confusion over new ID requirements created by a Republican-backed law that went into effect last month.

The Texas law, known as Senate Bill 1, requires that people provide either a partial Social Security number or a driver's license number on their application for a mail-in ballot — and that number has to match the identification on their voter registration.

The problem is this: A lot of people don't remember what form of ID they put on their registration. That's especially true if they registered to vote decades ago.

James Slattery, senior staff attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, says it was obvious this new rule was going to create a huge headache for voters and local officials — which is why he warned state lawmakers about it this past summer.

"It is easy to see the needless chaos and mass disenfranchisement that requiring this matching process will create," he told a Texas House committee in July.