The overview
The board will meet July 29 to consider adopting the proposal to procure consecutively numbered pre-printed paper ballots after Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson issued Election Advisory 2024-21 on June 24.
According to county documents, the board will gather at the county courthouse at 10 a.m. to discuss and consider the adoption of the proposal. The decision was prompted by Williamson County Election Administrator Bridgette Escobedo’s decision to procure pre-printed paper ballots on July 2 as well as a growing concern over ballot secrecy.
“As a member of the County Election Board, I plan to move to approve this decision at our next meeting. The right to ballot secrecy is an integral part of our voting system which we cannot allow to be compromised. I want to thank the members of the public who have been reasonable and kind in providing input regarding our election processes,” Judge Bill Gravell said in a statement.
According to county officials, the cost associated with adopting paper ballots for the county’s 431,800 registered voters will be determined by the length of the ballot.
The details
The advisory from the SOS addresses updated requirements relating to the certification of electronic pollbook systems under Texas Election Code 31.014 and the use of software methods of ballot numbering under Election Code 52.075. The move was prompted in part by independent reporting from The Texas Tribune that verified that, in limited cases, private choices some voters make in the voting booth could be identified using public, legally available records.
However, concerns over ballot security have been raised and debated for at least a year.
Marcia Watson, Williamson County executive director of Citizens Defending Freedom, a conservative grassroots organization, voiced her concerns over ballot secrecy at seven different Williamson County Commissioners Court meetings in 2024, ranging from Jan. 23-July 2.
Several organizations, including Texas Project and CDF, have voiced their concerns about the security and safety of the county's election equipment and the move to consecutively numbered pre-printed ballots is a step in the right direction, Watson said.
Democratic Chair Kim Collins Gilby said that this is a small change that won’t necessarily alter how the county conducts the election.
“[Williamson County] is still using the electronic voting equipment. The only thing that’s going to be different is that a serial number will be pre-printed on the back. [Election officials] will still be inserting those ballot cards into the electronic voting equipment,” Collins Gilby said.
Gravell also pointed out that county officials do not have as much leeway as some residents believe, and that county officials will comply with state requirements.
“At the county level, [officials] have some discretion, but overwhelmingly, they have to follow the state direction. It’s the same way people think that the Commissioners Court can write new rules and laws, but [the court] is a subset of state government,” Gravell said during the June 18 meeting.
The outlook
Watson said she believes that ballot security and the push for consecutively numbered pre-printed ballots is a bipartisan issue that protects people’s constitutional rights.
“Nobody should know how you vote. It's a fundamental private civic freedom and liberty that we have in our constitution,” Watson said.
Collins Gilby said she believes the only change this decision will make is in altering how ballots are numbered.
Voters will be given a ballot at random by choosing one of three ballots laid out on a table, but voters won’t receive ballots in consecutive order. The difference is that instead of computerized random numbering there will be a pre-printed serial number on the back of the ballot, Gilby said.
Gravell said he believes that the county has chosen the correct method to address ballot secrecy concerns.
“What the secretary of state said was that [the county] can’t do it the way [the county] has always done it. There are multiple other ways that [the county] could do this, [officials] could even wait until there is a software update and accept that as an alternative method. Based upon [Escobido’s] leadership this is the path that [the county] is going and I’m appreciative of that because there’s a lot of ways that we could choose to go with this. This is the right way,” Gravell said during the July 2 meeting.
By the numbers
Looking ahead
According to county officials, the county has yet to purchase new ballots ahead of the Aug. 19 deadline to file for the General Election in November.
