New Measures In Texas Aim To Shield Voters From Ballot Exposure

After pushing for more transparency measures, now Texas officials are taking steps to protect the confidentiality of voters.

Recently, the Texas Tribune and Votebeat Texas reported that officials began making more efforts to make elections more transparent because of unsubstantiated concerns over widespread voter fraud. However, this also made it easier to determine how specific people voted.

Earlier this month, the news site Current Revolt published what it claimed to be an image of the ballot that former Republican Party of Texas Chair Matt Rinaldi cast in the March 5 GOP primary. Rinaldi did not confirm or deny it was his ballot.

The Tribune and Votebeat, however, said it was possible to identify someone’s ballot using public records and cross-referencing a series of public variables.

Rinaldi’s scandal sparked concern among elected officials, who vowed to ensure secrecy in the ballots. According to the Houston Chronicle, Secretary of State Jane Nelson and Attorney General Ken Paxton addressed the issue by issuing emergency guidance in June, urging local election officials to redact any personal identifiers from public records. Nelson stressed that it’s not just a single data point that could identify a voter, but a combination of information that may allow someone to trace a ballot back to an individual. 

One of the most significant changes is the state’s decision to stop using ballot numbers generated by electronic pollbook systems, a move prompted by a lawsuit in Williamson County. These numbers, the lawsuit alleged, could be used to identify voter choices. To comply with the change, nearly half of Texas counties have been forced to buy preprinted ballots.

In addition, some counties are also taking steps to ensure compliance. For example, Bexar County has purchased software to redact sensitive information, including ballot numbers, clerks’ initials, and signatures.

Despite all of these measures, elections experts said that the risk of identifying a voter’s ballot is minimal. This type of identification is only possible in very specific cases, such as when a small number of voters within a precinct cast a ballot. The fewer voters in a precinct, the easier it is to identify individuals using cross-references.

However, the Chronicle noted that nearly 100 Texas counties use countywide polling places, and that identifying voters is even harder in high-turnout elections, such as November’s general election.

In addition, a 2023 study examining Maricopa County, Arizona, found that 99.8% of voters could not be identified through cast-vote records.