[UPDATED] The ABCs of Free and Fair Elections
Auditability, Ballot Secrecy, and Chain of Custody: Vital concepts in Secure Elections.
AUDITABLE PAPER TRAILS, BALLOT SECRECY, AND CHAIN OF CUSTODY
THE ABCs OF ELECTION INTEGRITY
THE ISSUE
For those who missed our earlier reports or are new subscribers, a bombshell discovery was made in Tarrant County by a local activist who was simply attempting to audit election records. In her attempts to understand election records, the local activist inadvertently uncovered a deeply concerning fact; that Texas election systems facilitate the illegal ability to reconcile individual voted ballots with the names of the voters who cast them. In the process, she identified thousands of instances where voters had cast ballots outside their assigned precincts.
This revelation stems from the way Tarrant County—and many other counties across Texas—conducts elections through countywide vote centers, rather than precinct-based voting. While introduced without prompting from citizens as a more convenient method of voting, and billed as a way to increase voter turnout, this approach unintentionally facilitates the identification of thousands of voters' choices. When a voter whose county uses countywide vote centers casts a ballot outside of their designated precinct, and happens to be the only one from that precinct voting at that location, their right to ballot secrecy is completely destroyed.
This issue has affected multiple thousands of unsuspecting voters in various Texas counties using countywide vote centers. The process of reconciling election results from countywide vote centers back to the precinct level creates relational data that can link ballots to voters—an outcome that directly violates both state and federal law. Specifically, Texas Election Code 121.001 (a)(1) prohibits the use of any voting system that fails to protect the right to a secret ballot, while federal law requires both an auditable paper trail and public access to election records.
Nationwide we see one of the three pillars of election security, Chain of Custody, destroyed either deliberately or otherwise broken due to poor training or apathy of election staff. The implementation of countywide vote centers has effectively destroyed the two remaining pillars of election security: Auditability and Ballot Secrecy. By creating unlawful relationships between data points, whether deliberately or inadvertently, certain county election systems have undermined the anonymity of the vote while simultaneously preventing a full and timely audit of individual precinct returns as reported from the county and state. Attempts to “fix” the ballot secrecy violation after the election—such as redacting what are supposed to be anonymous records—compromises auditability without truly protecting ballot secrecy. In reality, once ballots are cast and stored, anyone with access to the election records (primarily government officials or temporary workers) can identify individual votes under certain conditions. Arguably, the government is the very last entity which should have access to a voter's ballot selections.
THE ABCs OF ELECTION INTEGRITY
At TBTR Strategies, we stress the foundational ABCs of election integrity:
Auditability ensures transparency and accuracy. Without auditable records, there is no way to verify the legitimacy of an election or correct potential errors or fraud. The granularity of an audit must allow for examination of records as reported from the smallest political subdivision, which is typically a voting precinct within county or district bounds. Redaction of records which are mandated to be anonymous destroys auditability of records.
Ballot Secrecy protects voters from coercion, intimidation, vote-buying, and retaliation. It is essential to safeguarding free and fair elections. Only a voter should be able to identify their ballot, and a voter's ballot selections must remain between the voter and God.
Chain of Custody is the only documented evidence the government can offer to prove that an election was lawfully and securely conducted. It must be unbroken, verifiable, and fully accessible for review. The burden of proof is on the government to prove that they conducted a trustworthy election, not on the People to prove that failure to conduct an election adhereing to state and federal law resulted in a different outcome in the election than would have resulted if the government had followed the law.
These three pillars are not optional—they are legal and ethical obligations, state and federally mandated. Yet, in current election practices, all three are under threat along with the People's ability to maintain and direct our representative republic.
WHO BEARS THE BURDEN OF PROOF?
It is critical to understand that the burden of proof rests on the government, not the people. It is not up to citizens to prove that violations of law changed the outcome of an election. Rather, it is the government’s responsibility to demonstrate—beyond doubt—that they conducted a lawful, secure, and auditable election in accordance with the law. A broken chain of custody or destroyed audit trail means the government cannot meet that burden, and the election results cannot be verified as accurate and trustworthy.
THE OFFICIAL RESPONSE
After our quiet confirmation of these findings—thanks to the courageous citizen who discovered the issue, the assistance of Barry Wernick and his team of volunteers—the matter was escalated to the Texas Secretary of State (SOS) and Attorney General (AG).
Initially, the SOS publicly denied the existence of any ballot secrecy issue in Texas, and a formal statement was issued on that point. That statement was later reversed when local election officials and the Attorney General confirmed the problem was, in fact, real beyond the shadow of doubt. The seriousness of this breach was further amplified when a media outlet obtained and published the ballot of a former Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, using it to shame and embarrass him publicly for his primary selections.
In response, the Texas SOS immediately issued an order to all counties to redact any election records with "personally identifiable" information, especially ballots, claiming the need to protect voter privacy which they had previously denied was in jeopardy. While ballot secrecy is indeed vital, it cannot come at the expense of auditability. If fraud is suspected, we cannot hide behind the veil of secrecy. As existing case law makes clear, secrecy must not shield corruption:
“The secrecy of the ballot had better be scattered to the four winds, rather than have such secrecy shield corruption in elections... better a thousand times that the individual's vote should be spread upon canvas under calcium light, than that fraud should be locked up within the lids of official ballot boxes and poll books with no known legal method of exposing such fraud.”
— Sewell v. Chambers, citing Gantt v. Brown, 238 Mo. 560, 142 S.W. 422 (1948)
Grassroots investigators at TBTR Strategies do not believe the SOS’s concern for voter privacy is genuine, as this issue has been known for years by election administrators and state election officials, yet never once disclosed to the legislature or the public that if a voter votes outside of their assigned voting precinct that their ballot can be tied back to their name using records created and necessary to audit elections in counties using countywide vote centers.
THE REMEDY
The solution is both simple and powerful: eliminate redaction of what are supposed to be anonymous ballots and return to precinct-based voting. Ballots must be cast collectively at the precinct level to preserve anonymity. This is the only way to ensure both auditability and ballot secrecy. With redactions being unnecessary due to all ballots of a precinct being cast together, audits can be conducted transparently, and ballot secrecy is preserved by casting all ballots truly anonymously.
Precinct-based voting is the most granular level of election reporting, and restoring it is essential to restoring trust. Removal of public access to election records due to ballot secrecy violations inherent to countywide voting or computerized voting systems, or denying the creation of necessary items in an auditable paper trail, is widely considered to be undue influence in our local elections.
Finally, Chain of Custody must be elevated in significance across the nation when it comes to training election workers. Whether seasonal workers from a temp agency or long-time election workers, the Chain of Custody must be taken so seriously that every staffer is trained in how to handle election records. To ensure public trust in election results, we must guarantee the People an Auditable Paper Trail, Ballot Secrecy, and a complete and unbroken Chain of Custody for the records and results we are expected to accept.
OUR MISSION, GOALS, AND PRIORITIES
At TBTR Strategies, our mission is to raise the level of election education across the country. We train first-time poll watchers, experienced observers, and concerned citizens based on what we've uncovered in over three years of investigative work in Tarrant County and across Texas.
Through partnerships with organizations like The America Project, we’ve identified recurring issues nationwide. My original work with Taking Back Texas confirmed that the problems in Texas exist everywhere.
We are committed to helping Americans get informed, engaged, and involved in securing their local elections through education, observation, and proper investigation.
TBTR Strategies is a consulting firm offering election security training and legislative consultation to citizens, elected officials, campaigns, and advocacy groups. We also produce detailed investigative reports that expose the true effects of election procedures adopted in each county and state.
You don’t need to be an attorney to understand election law, nor do you need a specialized degree to comprehend the intent of Congress when it mandated an “auditable paper trail” for U.S. elections.
Never allow someone to gaslight you into believing you are “not qualified” to ask questions or demand transparency. If a government official cannot clearly and calmly address your concerns, they may not be qualified to certify that election system in the first place.
For more information, visit tbtr.us or contact us at info@tbtr.us.
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" I was born for the storm, and a calm does not suit me." - President Andrew Jackson