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Citizen urges Collin County to adopt hand-marked paper ballots, citing study on ballot‑marking device error detection
Summary
A resident asked the commissioners to plan for hand‑marked paper ballots and to remove ballot‑marking devices after citing research that voters miss injected errors on ballot‑marking devices.
A member of the public asked the Collin County Commissioners to adopt hand‑marked paper ballots for upcoming elections and to remove ballot‑marking devices (BMDs), citing studies that suggest voters often miss errors introduced by BMDs.
"I want to speak today to request that the court outline a plan, and then implement and mark paper ballots for the November," Chuck Reynolds said during the public‑comment period. Reynolds cited a 2019 Michigan study he said found voters detected only 7% of injected errors when no signage or verbal reminders were provided and that enhanced verbal scripts raised detection to about 19% in a test setting.
"So if you're planning on voting the same way here in Collin County, 80 percent of your voters are not gonna catch an injected error," Reynolds said, and he asked the court to "get hand‑marked paper ballots, and get rid of the BMDs for the 2025 election."
The court did not take action on the request during the meeting. The comment was recorded during the public‑comment portion of the agenda; no county official responded with a decision or directive on the record.
