Tarrant County unveils new election transparency tool ahead of 2024 presidential election
FORT WORTH, Texas - Tarrant County unveiled a new tool aimed at increasing election transparency with less than 90 days away from Election Day.
Creators of the Ballot Verifier program say it will let people view cast ballots while keeping personal information about the voter private. They hope it helps people feel better about the results.
Adam Friedman leads Civera, which created Ballot Verifier.
"It puts a lot more power in the hands of ordinary people that deserve to be able to access their government," he said.
Friedman says the new program will let people look at the ballots cast and check that the numbers match vote totals down to the precinct level.
"We now have the technology to allow maximum transparency where every single American citizen can look through for themselves and really peer inside the process and verify the results for themselves," he said.
Election transparency was thrust into the spotlight after the 2020 election when unfounded claims of election fraud ran rampant.
However, fraud hasn't been a big concern in Tarrant County. The Texas Secretary of State's Office applauded the county's work in 2020.
In 2023, a state law went into effect requiring election offices to make ballot images publicly available two months after an election. County officials say this tool lets them do that without overburdening staff with responding to records requests.
"Let them be at home and verify with their own eyes and view and see and sort and do all those things," said Tarrant County Elections Administrator," Clint Ludwig. "So they can understand and feel good about the election and the results we were putting out."
Officials say the data won't reveal exactly how individual people voted, and it will take time for make ballot images available.
It means if claims of fraud surface immediately after the vote like it happened in 2020, the ballots wouldn't be available.
"What we are trying to work to, and we're working through our processes, is to streamline it enough so we can get it down to weeks," Ludwig said.
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Tarrant County Election Integrity Task Force hasn't yielded any criminal charges since its creation
The unit has investigated dozens of complaints of possible voter fraud since its inception 16 months ago. However, none have led to any charges or prosecutions.
Tarrant County is just the second in the country to roll out the new technology.
Civera says Denton County is looking to add Ballot Verifer. Dallas County has shown interest as well.