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FILE – Voters check-in at a polling location. (Matthew Hatcher/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

COLLIN COUNTY, Texas – When voters head to the polls in November, the process will be different in Collin County.

The election’s office is going back to paper ballots after President Trump questioned the reliability of electronic voting machines. Despite the fact, election audits have found no widespread irregularities with electronic systems.

Why paper ballots?

What we know:

Collin County moved to a paper ballot system in June. The reason, according to the county commissioners, is transparency. 

But for years, the Collin County elections office has been touted as the gold standard in Texas for election efficiency and that was with a non-paper ballot system. 

Training underway for new paper election system

Local perspective:

There is a lot going on inside the Collin County elections office ahead of the November election. On Monday, elections workers were in training leading up to early voting which starts next Monday. 

This year the training is different because the county moved to a paper ballot system. 

Kaleb Breaux is the new election administrator. He’s been with the Collin County elections office since 2020 under the former administrator, Bruce Sherbet. 

“So basically, our voters who voted by mail from 2019 until now, are voting on the type of ballot that we’ll just be voting on in person,” said Breaux.

“I gotta tell you, it was not on my bingo card to come in and implement all these changes after Bruce left.”

Last year, an attempt to switch to paper ballots failed in commissioner’s court. This year it was approved following President Trump’s executive order in March. 

 “I feel like our court maybe received some feedback on voters of how to make our process more transparent. I think some voters had maybe an issue of transparency with our old ballot marking device, which we’re still using. Voters who need an ADA compliant ballot marking device, that device is still available for them. It’s just not our primary method of marking the ballot,” said Breaux.

The push for ‘election integrity’ audits in Texas

The backstory:

Republican lawmakers in Texas have pushed a wide range of changes to early and election day voting under the umbrella of election integrity, and they ordered election audits that found no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

In fact, Collin County has been highlighted as one of the most efficient counties in the state of Texas when it comes to the election process. While the ballots will be manually filled out, the tabulation will still be done electronically.

Manual ballots, electronic tabulation

Dig deeper:

Turnout is expected to be light in November, as it is mostly geared toward state constitutional amendments, not candidate races.

Breaux told FOX 4 that without the use of voting machines, he thinks they could create more space for people to vote to cut down on lines during next year’s midterms when turnout will be greater. 

“Sure, we understand that there are going to be challenges, but we hope in looking at some of these processes, we’ve been able to come up with ways to mitigate what could be some challenges in dealing with delays,” he said. 

Neighboring Denton County has issued paper ballots since 2019.

What’s next:

 Early voting begins next Monday, October 20th.

The Source: Information in this article ws provided by FOX 4’s Steven Dial.

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