Randall County approves software to redact and verify scanned ballots, citing voter privacy concerns

Randall County Commissioners Court on a 5-0 vote approved buying two software modules to process and redact scanned ballots, county staff said, after lengthy discussion about public-records requests that have, at times, allowed outsiders to identify how individual voters cast ballots.

County Elections Administrator Shannon (first name not provided) told the court the software would both speed requests and protect voter secrecy. "Voter secrecy is the utmost importance to me," Shannon said, adding that current manual redaction of images is time-consuming: staff were working in the "second week of redacting all of these different pieces from the 27,000 ballots that were cast during that election." She said the proposed system would reduce that work dramatically: "This will do that in 2 to 3 days 2 to 3 minutes."

Shannon said the modules are offered through a cooperative contract awarded by Tarrant County and would be provided by the vendor listed in the quote. The purchase includes a ballot redactor priced at $13,000 (first-year support included) and a ballot verifier priced at $2,000 (first-year support included). Implementation costs are part of the first-year price; maintenance after implementation is expected to be lower, staff said.

Why it matters: Shannon said requesters can combine public rosters of who voted on a specific date and location with cast-vote records to isolate and identify how a single voter voted in an outlying precinct or atypical voting location. "We actually have had a requester that reached out to Randall County voters and said, I'm going to prove to you how you voted," Shannon told the court, and said an Attorney General ruling treats precinct number, date, judge's signature and cast-location information as personally identifying when combined with other data.

How it works and retention: Staff said the county already stores scanned ballot images from voting scanners; the software would process those images after each election and produce redacted images that comply with public-record law. Ballots are retained for 22 months; Shannon said redacted images would be made available to requesters after the legally required 61-day period following an election.

Discussion highlights: Commissioners raised questions about security, implementation and whether the software would be charged by usage. Shannon and Brandon from IT said the product would not bill per request and that the software was intended to produce a single redacted file per election that could be distributed quickly on demand. County Judge praised election staff, noting state-level review: "our county, and our staff at the election administration office... are reviewed frequently by the secretary of state, to ensure this election is fair, is accurately counted, and we have not had any problems." The court emphasized that the software will be used only after an election is completed and canvassed.

Outcome and next steps: Commissioner Robinson moved to approve the purchase through the Tarrant County Cooperative Purchasing Program; the motion was seconded and carried 5-0. Staff will complete vendor onboarding, insurance and implementation steps and return to the court if additional modules or multi-year maintenance commitments are proposed.

Ending: Commissioners framed the purchase as both a time-saver and a privacy safeguard that will help the elections office respond faster to public-record requests while reducing the risk that requesters could reconstruct how individual voters cast ballots.