In a Digital World, Texas Backs Up Elections on Paper

In September, Hays County Elections Administrator Jennifer Doinoffwatched as test ballots were scanned while also fielding questions from a public observer attentively watching with a clipboard in hand.

The public test is one of many requirements and procedures local election officials and workers in Texas follow to ensure free and fair elections. Despite all assurances, election workers continue to face increased public scrutiny.

This year, Texas election officials are prepared to take on what some say may be the biggest threat to elections — more misinformation — with an old-school tool: paper ballots. Whether by hand or by making their selections on a touchscreen machine, most Texans will mark and cast paper ballots in the Nov. 5 election.

Only six Texas counties will have in-person voters at the polls use direct-recording electronic, or DRE, voting systems that do not rely on paper ballots, according to Secretary of State data mapped by the group Verified Voting. The organization tracks voting equipment and advocates for auditable voting systems. In three of these six counties, in-person voters either mark a paper ballot by hand or use a DRE voting machine. However, some additional counties use DRE machines only for curbside voters, who cannot enter polls without assistance or injuring their health. All Texas voting machines must produce a paper trail by 2026 under a 2021 state law.

“The reason that I think legislators made this move towards hybrid systems is you always can check that paper ballot,” Doinoff said.

Even in counties that will still use DREs, officials have to test voting machines and have security measures in place. Here’s more about how Texas elections officials count and keep votes safe.

Much of the United States moved away from paper-based voting after the 2000 election, which raised concerns about the accuracy of vote counting machines in cases when punch-card voting machines didn’t always completely punch out and mark a voter’s selection.

To avoid similar fiascos, the federal government set aside $3 billion for new voting machines and many states used that funding to buy direct recording electronic voting machines. However, some computer scientists began raising concerns about vulnerabilities and the lack of a paper trail around the mid-2000s. Some electronic voting machines have been hacked in controlled studies, but there is no evidence of successful voting machine tampering in U.S. elections.

Paper-backed systems have made a comeback among growing cybersecurity concerns, aging voting machines and changes following the 2020 election, said Mark Lindeman, Policy and Strategy Director of Verified Voting.

In Texas, less than 1 percent of Texans will vote in counties that still rely on DREs (without VVPAT printers) for all in-person voters in the upcoming election, compared to over a third in 2020, Lindeman said.

“What makes the 2024 election fundamentally even more secure than the 2020 election is that almost everyone is voting on paper,” he said. “It doesn't mean that nothing can go wrong. It means that even if things go wrong, the problems can be corrected.”

This transition doesn’t mean voting machines are now “foolproof,” but “paper ballots can cut through a lot of the noise,” and concerns about election hacking, Lindeman added.

“You know, folks can talk about foreign computer servers all they want, but the paper ballots stay in Texas. The paper ballots will be examined in Texas,” he said.

For voters who may encounter quirks with voting machines, such as those that have led to past mistaken reports of “vote switching,“ paper ballots allow them to review and double check their ballot. Voters have the right to get up two additional ballots to make corrections. The incorrect ballots are spoiled and not counted.

“You don't deposit that paper ballot into the tabulator until it reads your votes exactly the way that you want to,” Doinoff said, urging voters to review their marked ballots.

This story was excerpted from The Texas Tribune.