Texas AG Ken Paxton Proposes Major Election Transparency Measure

Why should any government hold ballots under lock and key and not let them see the daylight for a 22-month period?

This is exactly what Ken Paxton is asking and refuting with his new legal opinion on how anonymous ballots and election transparency should be handled in Texas.

The Texas Attorney General submitted his legal opinion on how ballot transparency should work—proposing that information relating to anonymous ballots should be made public immediately and without delay.

Currently, as per a previous opinion, these anonymous ballots were kept from the public for a period of 22 months after an election—long after any meaningful action could have been taken to correct potential election fraud.

Paxton argues that this transparency is key to public trust in the election process.

Here’s more on the story:

BREAKING REPORT: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Announces PUBLIC HAS RIGHT TO VIEW ANONYMOUS VOTED BALLOTS Without Delay..

— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) August 23, 2022

“We won’t back down until our elections are completely and totally secure,” Paxton said.

Ballots cast in #Texas elections are considered records that the public has a right to access, according to an opinion released by Attorney General @KenPaxtonTX. https://t.co/05TgKmPRmn

— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) August 24, 2022

Paxton’s statement was provided by The Epoch Times:

“This opinion will help create new processes that can be used to verify [that] our elections have been conducted fairly and without any fraud,” Paxton wrote.

“My office continues to lead from the front in the battle for election integrity, and we won’t back down until our elections are completely and totally secure.”

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🗳️Election Integrity: A new opinion released Wednesday by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton concludes that the public should have access to “anonymous voted ballots,” paving the way for citizens and lawmakers to audit elections.https://t.co/Q7QypfaVdL

— Texas Scorecard (@TexasScorecard) August 19, 2022

Kudos to @KenPaxtonTX and his team for not blindly following the 1988 opinion and to @RepMattKrause and @KHancock4TX for urging him to review this important question. This means Texans can access anonymous voted ballots to compare those ballots with the announced results.

— Tony McDonald (@TweetTonyMac) August 18, 2022

Kxan, a local NBC affiliate, reports:

Paxton explains anonymous voted ballots are ballots that have any identifiable information about a voter redacted.

His opinion establishes these ballots “are election records under the Election Code, and the Legislature has established procedures aimed at both preserving those records and granting public access to them.”