Collin County voters spent more time at the polls than normal this election to bubble in their ballots by hand for the first time in decades, a switch inspired by President Donald Trump’s call for election reform amid his unfounded concerns over widespread voter fraud.
It took longer for voters to fill out the paper ballots than mark them electronically, poll workers observed, as the county performs a “stress test” on a new system ahead of larger elections in 2026, County Elections Administrator Kaleb Breaux said.
Voters cast ballots on 17 changes to the state constitution on Tuesday, including significant property tax reductions. Also on the ballot were local bond issues, municipal office and one state Senate special election. Off-year elections often receive little attention, but have meaningful races that sometimes go unnoticed.
Kalli Smith, 54, said she was surprised that she had to fill out her ballot by hand when she voted at The Grove at Frisco Commons Tuesday.
“We’re taking a step backwards,” Smith said.
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Election workers reported more ballots were spoiled this election than in years past. If a voter makes a mistake on a paper ballot, instead of re-checking their intended vote, they’ll need an entirely new ballot.
Although turnout was low this election season, some vote centers in Collin County saw wait times as long as an hour. Almost 16% of the county’s more than 742,000 registered voters cast ballots early, by mail or in person on Election Day, according to early results and to Breaux.
Virginia Burgan, an election worker in Frisco, saw some voters choose to cast a ballot with an accidental marking, just so they don’t have to repeat the process. She finds it concerning.
“You just want to make sure that voters are voting the way that they want to vote, and not just because it’s a pain in the butt to go back to redo all of their choices because of one mistake,” she said.
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Burgan said it’s been more difficult for voters with tremors or vision issues to fill out paper ballots. She’s heard voters complain about “going back in time,” and heard one ask, “what’s next, a stone tablet and a chisel?”
The County Commissioners Court voted this summer to adopt hand-marked paper ballots in an effort to align with a March executive order from the White House, which called for “voting methods that produce a voter-verifiable paper record” to allow voters to check their votes and prevent fraud or mistake.
Following Trump’s allegations of widespread voter fraud, many Texas Republicans have grown more concerned about election security. There’s been no evidence of widespread voter fraud in recent presidential elections, and Breaux said he’s seen no evidence of voter fraud in the county elections.
Others are concerned the move will bring the county closer to hand-counting ballots, as Dallas County Republicans decided they will do in the March primary.
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The hand-marked ballots in Collin County were still tabulated by a machine within the polling place, and are not hand-counted.
Areas under both Republican and Democratic jurisdictions already use hand-marked ballots, including neighboring Denton County.
Local officials in Collin County scrambled to make the switch from machine voting in just four months. Breaux said the change to hand-marked ballots in Collin County is costing around $2.3 million.
“This process is as secure and as transparent as is the previous primary method of marking a ballot in Collin County,” Breaux said in an interview. “There was never a question about the integrity of tabulations and tallies.”
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Breaux hopes to iron out minor parts of the paper ballot process to make sure ballots are easily counted, election workers are properly trained and voters are educated on what to expect.
“We’re going to take this as a learning experience and make the process even better as we go into midterm elections in 2026,” Breaux said. “We’re doing the best we can to implement what our court believes the voters here in Collin County want.”
Debi Klein, an election worker in Plano, said overall the change to hand-marked ballots has been smoother than expected, but found most voters dislike the change.
“The old system … was very quick and very easy,” Klein said. “I don’t think it’s any more secure than it was before.”
Burgan is concerned how the printers will fare in busier elections and noticed minor issues with printing ballots this election, like misprints and technology errors. Klein is optimistic that the county will be prepared for larger elections.
“The amount of work they did in four months to get us ready for this election, I’m shocked at how well they did,” Klein said. “They got us ready for this race … knowing that it was going to be a lot slower, and so we would be able to really know what we were doing. I definitely think they’ll be ready.”
Staff writer Angela Mathew contributed to this report.
Email tips on all things Collin County to lilly.kersh@dallasnews.com.