Collin County's plans to move to hand-marked paper ballots is getting pushback from a bipartisan voting rights group that warns the change will lead to inefficiencies and inaccuracies.
The Collin County League of Women Voters and The Texas Civil Rights Project have sent county commissioners a letter urging them to reconsider their June 9 vote to move to hand-marked ballots. The voting rights groups warn hand-marked ballots could lead to long lines, human error and distrust in elections.
The county currently uses electronic voting machines that print out a ballot with a barcode for tabulation.
Commissioners voted unanimously to approve contracts for new equipment for hand-marked paper ballots at Monday’s meeting after hearing from members of Collin County League of Women Voters and the Collin County Citizens Defending Freedom chapter, which has advocated for paper ballots in commissioners court for years.
New Mandate
Commissioner Susan Fletcher said moving to hand-marked paper ballots complies with an executive order from President Donald Trump. The order requires voting systems to not use ballots that use a barcode to help count votes except when accommodating voters with disabilities.
Nineteen states have challenged the executive order in court, arguing that it will create barriers to voting.
Commissioner Duncan Webb said Collin County elections administrator Kaleb Breaux and Collin County administrator Yoon Kim had a call with a representative from the Texas Secretary of State’s office regarding the executive order. Webb asked Breaux if the county’s move to hand-marked ballots complied with guidance from the Texas Secretary of State.
“Based on their recommendation and guidance, I believe that we as a county are moving in the direction based on the recommendation,” Breaux answered.
He said he and other county elections administrators are awaiting further guidance and clarifications from the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission, which has a meeting scheduled for July 2.
Sarah Chen, a supervising attorney for voting rights at the Texas Civil Rights Project, said President Donald Trump doesn’t have the authority to require changes to voluntary voting system guidelines with an executive order.
“There's not an excuse, I think, that Collin County can say ‘we had to do this,’” she said. “It is it is a policy choice that the commissioners court has made.”
Collin County Judge Chris Hill first proposed switching the county’s voting method last year ahead of the 2024 November election. Commissioners heard hours of public testimony urging them to make the change at that meeting, but it failed to pass due to concerns about time and budget. Instead, the commissioners directed staff to look into using paper ballots in the future.
Election fraud claims about the 2020 election repeatedly have been discredited. But members of the Collin County chapter of Citizens Defending Freedom, many of whom are also active in the local Republican Party, have spoken about election integrity concerns at Collin County commissioners’ court meetings for years.
Collin County went for Trump in 2020 and every other Republican on the ballot. The county's election administrator answers to the all-Republican commissioners court. And the Texas Secretary of State’s Office has said Collin County’s elections are secure in its audit of the 2020 general election. The audit called Collin County “the model of how to run elections in Texas.”
Abraham George, who is now the Texas State Republican Party Chair, told KERA while he was the Collin County Republican Party chair the precinct chairs spoke as individuals at the meetings, not on the party’s behalf. He also said although there were issues in other parts of the country, there was no election fraud in Collin County in 2020.
“We know we didn’t have any fraud,” George said. “We won every race.”
Liz Holland, the president of the Collin County League of Women Voters, said the move to hand-marked ballots is unnecessary.
“There are no problems here,” Holland said. “There is no reason for this change. And so it's very concerning that we're going to go to hand-mark ballots, because hand mark ballots introduce human error.”
Hand-marked ballots use a scanner that records candidates voters select by filling in a circle next to their names with a pen. Holland said even a single mark in a bubble could lead to an error in the scanner when the vote is counted.
Chuck Reynolds, a frequent commenter on election integrity at Collin County commissioners’ court, said at Monday’s meeting hand-marked paper ballots allow people to verify their votes are correct.
“With respect to the barcode translation, citizens cannot verify, 0% verified,” Reynolds said. “It’s scary, the whole election counted by barcode.”
Holland said the machines Collin County are pre-tested and certified before elections to ensure accuracy. She said members of both the Democratic and Republican parties are involved in the process.
Holland said the concerns about bar codes are based on misinformation.
“It's absolutely ridiculous that someone would say the barcode is misrepresenting their vote,” she said.
Collin County’s plan doesn’t completely eliminate voting machines – the hand-marked ballots will still be counted by a machine. Chen said she worries moving to hand-counted ballots could be next.
“When hand-counting is implemented, it is an absolute nightmare and does result in inaccuracies and delays and is absolutely counterproductive to the stated goals of the people that are advocating for it,” Chen said.
Open Discussion
The letter from the Collin County League of Women Voters and the Texas Civil Rights Project alleges that the commissioners violated open meetings law when they moved to hand-marked paper ballots for future elections at the June 9 meeting.
Holland said the commissioners violated the Texas Open Meetings Act by not clearly outlining the issue at hand in the meeting’s agenda.
“It was done without any transparency or discussion open to the public,” she said.
Commissioners argued the vote was a formality ahead of Monday’s meeting and did not violate open meetings requirements.
The agenda item for the June 9 vote on the switch to hand-marked paper ballots on June 9 was a contract renewal for machine maintenance for the elections software and hardware support under the meeting’s consent agenda. Chen said consent agenda items are usually uncontroversial. She said the agenda item was misleading.
“That phrasing of a maintenance contract with new authorization makes it sound like the information system, the election systems, were going to be the same as in previous years,” Chen said.
Commissioners voted on switching to hand-marked paper ballots after an executive session away from the public. Hill said after the executive session meeting on June 9 they didn’t take action during executive session. Hill then made a motion to adopt hand-marked paper ballots for the upcoming November election and to direct staff to present a plan for implementation by June 23.
Chen said voters in Collin County weren’t given the opportunity to have their voices heard on the move to hand-marked ballots.
“We truly don't know all the different considerations, and nor were people able to take the time to do the research and testify and try to reach their public officials about this decision,” she said.
The letter from the voting rights groups urged county commissioners calling to vote against the contracts for hand-marked ballots and to reconsider their vote on moving to paper ballots “in a public meeting with sufficient public notice and opportunity to comment.”
At Monday’s meeting, commissioners said the vote on June 9 directed staff to prepare contracts and information to make the switch, not implement the change. Hill said commissioners want to hear from the public on issues.
“Today, the posting was sufficiently clear and there's been sufficient information so that folks know that we're continuing the conversation today,” he said. “So I'm glad you're all here so that we can do this together so that can continue to hear from you.”
Chen said she appreciated the commissioner’s openness to discussion but said their argument that the June 9 meeting was compliant with open meetings law doesn’t hold up.
“I do not think that it holds water,” she said. “Even the folks in the room who were advocating for this move to hand-marked ballots, they applauded the commissioners’ court for taking the vote and taking that motion to adopt hand-marked ballots on June 9.”
Chen said the Texas Civil Rights Project had no comment on whether or not the organization would be filing a lawsuit under the Texas Open Meetings Act.
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