Collin County approves vendor to redact ballot images, rejects manual option

Collin County Commissioners Court on an unrecorded date approved a contract to use a commercial redaction tool to prepare ballot images for public release and approved several consent items, including a personnel promotion and signage on county roads. The court voted 5–0 to authorize the elections office to proceed with the vendor solution after county staff outlined the time and cost of doing redaction manually.

The county's elections administrator, Caleb Breaux, told the court that the attorney general had advised counties to redact ballot images before making them publicly available to avoid linking ballots to specific voters. Breaux said staff consulted neighboring counties and identified a vendor (referred to in the packet as Severa/Seveira) that provides a redaction tool and a hosted service. He said the vendor would supply a…