diff --git a/jenkins/userid-validation b/jenkins/userid-validation
index 0ed259f..3569b26 100755
--- a/jenkins/userid-validation
+++ b/jenkins/userid-validation
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
 
 # shellcheck disable=2086 # GERRIT_COMMAND is purposefully wordsplit.
 COMMITTER_EMAIL=$(${GERRIT_COMMAND}/a/changes/${GERRIT_PROJECT/\//%2F}~${GERRIT_BRANCH}~${GERRIT_CHANGE_ID}/revisions/${GERRIT_PATCHSET_REVISION}/commit | python2 -c "import sys, json; sys.stdin.read(4); print(json.load(sys.stdin)['committer']['email'])")
-if [ "x${COMMITTER_EMAIL}" == "x" ]; then
+if [ "${COMMITTER_EMAIL}" = "" ]; then
     echo "Unable to find committer."
     "${GERRIT_SSH_CMD[@]}" review \
         "${GERRIT_CHANGE_NUMBER},${GERRIT_PATCHSET_NUMBER}" \
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
 COMMITTER_USERNAME=$(${GERRIT_COMMAND}/a/accounts/${COMMITTER_EMAIL} | python2 -c "import sys, json; sys.stdin.read(4); print(json.load(sys.stdin)['username'])")
 #COMMITTER_USERNAME=`${GERRIT_COMMAND}/a/accounts/${COMMITTER_EMAIL}`
 echo "USERNAME: $COMMITTER_USERNAME"
-if [ "x${COMMITTER_USERNAME}" == "x" ]; then
+if [ "${COMMITTER_USERNAME}" = "" ]; then
     echo "Unable to determine github user for ${COMMITTER_EMAIL}."
     "${GERRIT_SSH_CMD[@]}" review \
         "${GERRIT_CHANGE_NUMBER},${GERRIT_PATCHSET_NUMBER}" \