Yesterday, AL.com reported that an Alabama bill that would have required voters to submit a copy of their photo ID when requesting an absentee ballot is dead.

The bill’s defeat marks a rare win (or at least non-loss) for voting rights in Alabama, which already requires voters to submit a photo ID when mailing in their absentee ballot. Only three states, including Alabama, currently require a photo ID for absentee voting.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Reed Ingram (R – Elmore), likely had the votes necessary to pass the bill, but attempts to move it through the legislature had been met with Democratic filibusters and Republican confusion over just how strict the language in the bill was.

Requiring a photo ID on the front-end for absentee voting was billed as a way to ensure that the person who applies for the absentee ballot is the same as the person who submits it, when in reality that often isn’t how absentee voting works. As many people who vote absentee are elderly or disabled, they often rely on a friend or relative to obtain their absentee ballot, which they fill out at home. The same friend or relative often returns the ballot directly to the registrar’s office. Ingram has said that he intends to revise the bill for clarity on this issue, implying that it will make a comeback before the 2016 election.

There’s no reason why it should. When a voter applies for an absentee ballot in Alabama, their name is automatically stricken from the voter rolls for in-person voting in the relevant election, so concerns that the absentee system could be exploited for widespread voter fraud are thin at best.

Alabama hasn’t collected data on the number of people in the state who lack ID, but it’s safe to say its existing photo ID requirements have already turned away more eligible voters than frauds. It only took one case: 93 year-old Willie Mims who, despite having voted in every election since 2000 (as far back as voter file data showed), was turned away from the polls last year because he no longer drives and, by extension, lacks a valid drivers license or other photo ID.

In case it bears repeating, the kind of voter fraud that could be prevented with ID requirements is nonexistent in Alabama. Despite the state having offered a $1,000 reward to anyone who provided information that led to a voter fraud conviction last year, there were no reported cases of voter impersonation.