THE ABCs OF ELECTION SECURITY
Auditable Paper Trails, Ballot Secrecy for In-Person Voters, and Chain of Custody for Precinct Returns
THE ABCs OF ELECTION SECURITY
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: procects voters from coercion, intimidation, vote-buying, and retaliation. It is essential to safeguarding our 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. Redaction of election records is not a solution for the destruction of ballot secrecy. Instead it destroys auditability, and is an additional violation of state and federal law, and tantamount to a cover-up of larger civil rights issues.
CHAIN OF CUSTODY: is the only documented evidence the government can offer to prove thatprecinct returns are legally handled, and that an election was lawfully and securely conducted. It must be unbroken, verifiable, and fully accessible for review of precinct returns and turnout data. 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 to BALLOT SECRECY VIOLATIONS FOUND
After the quiet confirmation of enormity of the ballot secrecy violations in counties where regular ballots are cast countywide as opposed to by precinct, thanks to the Tammy Lehman, Susan Valiant and Barry Wernick who all exposed this massive civil rights violation - 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)
At TBTR Strategies, we 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 for precinct returns 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 precinct returns 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.
We are committed to helping Americans become more 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.
For more information, visit tbtr.us or contact us at takingtxback@gmail.com.
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If you would like to learn more, support or otherwise subscribe to our work, please visit and share out our website tbtr.us
Send our poll watcher training to your friends and family who are concerned about the elections but do not know how to get involved. Also send it to your favorite campaigns and ask them to send it to their teams, maybe even pay for it for their volunteers to get caught up on what to record on location as watchers/ observers or challengers.
Share out this graphic with the QR code linked to our Voter Complaint Form. Have all voters, watchers, and workers who experienced voting issues fill out the complaint form by simply showing them the QR code to scan with their phone. Link to the form is in the description, along with all above citation.
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