WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Texas — Soon, the Williamson County Board of Elections will consider a return to using paper ballots instead of voting machines.
Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson issued an emergency guidance to protect the privacy of voters, saying counties will now be required to update their ballot numbering methods.
“The right to ballot secrecy is an intricate part of our voting system, which we cannot – let me say this – we cannot allow that to be compromised,” Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell said at Tuesday’s county commission meeting.
Some residents breathed a sigh of relief, saying they’ve been fighting for this change for years.
“The Williamson County Citizens Defending Freedom [CDF] is proud to announce a significant victory in pursuit of election integrity,” Marcia Watson said.
Watson is a Williamson County resident and the executive director of CDF, a voter advocacy group. Watson said the Elections Board considering the change back to pre-printed consecutive numbered ballots will help secure the integrity of future elections. She said more changes were needed because elections in Williamson County haven't always felt secure.
In 2020, she said a printing error in their ballot system caused an issue.
“I was tech support in the field for the election department. I was responsible for seven polling locations in the Leander area, and I personally saw voters getting the incorrect ballot,” Watson said. "Did it affect the outcome of an election? It certainly could have."
Watson said she believes going back to paper ballots could help make sure that doesn't happen again.
“You get a randomized ballot, to hand-mark that ballot how we want it,” she said. “We won't have a machine that has calibration issues and flips votes.”
Gravell agrees.
“Every resident in Williamson County needs to know that when they cast their ballot, that ballot is counted accurately and that vote is confidential,” he said.
Gravell said under the Secretary of State's guidance, the county could wait for a system update in its voting machines. But he said paper ballots could be what's best.
"We have such a simple solution with sequentially numbered paper ballots … I’ve heard, clearly, from our residents that they want ballots, they want paper ballots. So, we’re providing that for our residents," he said.
Gravell said he’ll be presenting the motion to the Elections Board – made up of the elections administrator, the sheriff, the heads of both local Democratic and Republican parties and himself – in a few weeks at their next scheduled meeting. He said, as a voter, he believes that the current voting system has been correct the majority of the time, but he thinks it could be better.
"We're not charged with getting it right the majority of the time," he said. “We're charged with getting it right all of the time. When we can take steps or solutions that move us in that right direction, we have to be flexible and open to that.”
Gravell said there will be an additional cost if the switch to paper ballots is made. He said it will cost an extra 3 cents per voter, which they will pay for with tax money.