In a move heralded by election security advocates, Collin County officials voted to use hand-marked ballots in the November 2025 election.
Collin County Commissioners Court approved a plan on Monday to eliminate the use of ballot marking devices except for voters with disabilities.
Advocates for hand-marked ballots say they’re more secure, as the machine-printed ballot system tallies votes using bar codes that can’t be verified by voters.
The new system will print ballots on demand as voters check in at polling places using newly purchased printers. Voters will then hand-mark each selection on the ballot.
County Judge Chris Hill proposed switching to hand-marked paper ballots for the upcoming constitutional amendment election in November and directed staff to present the court with a plan for implementation by June 23.
The vote was 4-0. Commissioner Duncan Webb was absent.
Prior to the vote, Hill asked Collin County Elections Administrator Kaleb Breaux if his office could conduct the November election “with excellence” under the new system.
Breaux said the “deadlines are tight,” but his staff is prepared to handle the changes.
“I’ve reached out to several vendors that are going to be providing the tools, the resources that we need to pull this off,” said Breaux. “I think if we can move forward with the adoption of this system, it’s going to be tight, but I believe that myself and my staff will answer the call to hold a November election with excellence.”
Breaux said that the county will keep about 300 ballot marking devices in its inventory to comply with federal HAVA (Help America Vote Act) and ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) requirements. He also said the county will move away from using paperless curbside voting units.
Commissioner Darrell Hale asked Breaux about the cost of the proposed switch and if any federal or state grants are available.
Breaux said the anticipated cost of around $2.4 million is “well under” earlier estimates of $3-4 million and that the county is guaranteed a HAVA sub-grant of at least $52,000.
“I think this direction really is going to be the right direction,” said Commissioner Susan Fletcher.
Fletcher noted that implementing the citizen-requested changes in a smaller election allows the county to “work out the kinks” with the new style of voting and to educate voters and election workers ahead of the 2026 election cycle.
Commissioners also approved a renewed maintenance contract with Election Systems & Software (ES&S), the county’s voting system vendor. The contract will be amended as needed once a specific implementation plan is adopted.
ES&S is one of two approved voting system vendors in Texas. The other is Texas-based Hart InterCivic.
Collin County’s current ES&S ExpressVote system uses blank thermal ballot paper that is coded at check-in with the voter’s precinct. The voter inserts the paper into a ballot marking device that displays the races in which the voter is eligible to participate on a touch screen.
The voter makes selections on the screen, which prevents over-voting (selecting multiple candidates in a race, a mistake that invalidates a vote) and prompts voters if they leave any races blank.
When finished, the voter prompts the marking device to print out the ballot, which shows each race and the name of the selected candidate. The voter then inserts the completed ballot into a scanner, which stores the votes electronically and deposits the paper ballot into a secured box.
However, election integrity advocates note that the scanner does not read the names. Instead, it reads the bar codes printed on the ballot, meaning voters cannot actually verify that the candidates they selected will be the choices read by the scanners.
With the new system, completed ballots will be read and stored by the scanners currently in use, which will tally votes based on the position of the marks made by voters.
A ballot marking device will still be available at each polling location for use by voters who are visually impaired or cannot read a ballot.
Neighboring Denton County uses Hart’s ballot-on-demand voting system that prints ballots at the polls for voters to hand-mark.
Collin County officials will present a plan at the June 23 commissioners court meeting for implementing hand-marked ballots in the November 4 Constitutional Amendment Election, which will include 17 statewide ballot measures. Early voting in the election begins on October 20.
Collin County Commissioners Court meets on Mondays at 1:30 p.m.
