Texas In-Person Ballot Secrecy Challenge

Lawsuit filed by five Texas voters against Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson (R), Elections Director Christina Adkins and three county elections administrators challenging the state of ballot secrecy in Texas. In Texas, in-person voters are required to use an electronic voting system to cast their ballots. The electronic pollbooks and voting software used for these in-person voters must comply with both the Texas Election Code and Texas Administrative Code, which among other protections, guarantee Texas voters’ right to vote in secrecy. The plaintiffs allege that the electronic pollbooks and voting software authorized by the secretary of state — which are used to verify, sign in and mark ballots for in-person voters — violate this right to secrecy by labeling each ballot with a unique identifier ballot number rather than using a consecutive numbering system. The plaintiffs argue that this makes each in-person ballot easy to identify and match to individual voters. The plaintiffs claim that the use of these particular electronic pollbooks and their installed software violates the First Amendment, the Equal Protection and Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment and state and federal law, and ask the court to ban the use of unique identifier ballot numbers and any noncompliant voting software.

STATUS: The plaintiffs filed their amended complaint on May 20, 2024. Motions to dismiss the case are pending.

Last updated: July 23, 2024 4:49 pm EST