Collin County to move to hand-marked ballots for November election

Collin County will vote on hand-marked paper ballots in the November 2025 state constitution amendment election,

A motion from County Judge Chris Hill prompted the move to paper ballots, which was followed the County Commissioner Court’s unanimous vote to approve the change at a June 9 meeting.

Commissioners directed county elections staff to develop a plan to switch to hand-marked ballots in an August 2024 meeting. Currently, Collin County voters use ballot marking devices, or BMD's to mark paper ballots electronically. The BMD prints a ballot with a bar code, and a machine reads the barcode to tabulate votes. The new system, called Ballot on Demand, or BOD, will have voters mark their ballot with a pencil, and then feed their ballot into a machine that reads the markings on their ballot, according to a November presentation from County Administrator Yoon Kim. The current machines can be reconfigured to read the hand-marked ballots, according to an August memo from Kim.

County Judge Hill introduced the motion during discussion on renewing the county’s $556,000 contract with Elections Systems and Software to maintain the county's BMD's through June 2026. The county will be able to amend the contract to accommodate future changes in the county’s voting system, Collin County Elections Administrator Kaleb Breaux said.



https://communityimpact.com/dallas-fort-worth/mckinney/government/2025/06/16/collin-county-to-move-to-hand-marked-ballots-for-november-election/