President Donald Trump early Tuesday called on "all Republican" governors to follow moves in Texas counties toward requiring only paper ballots to "lead the Democrats out of their corrupt ways."
"Great news! Dallas County, Texas, just went to all PAPER BALLOTS," Trump said on his Truth Social page. "Many others are following suit! More accurate, totally secure with watermark paper, FASTER, and only 9% of the cost. All Republican Governors should mandatorily do this. Save Money and Freedom. Lead the Democrats out of their corrupt ways! President DJT."
Republicans across Texas are pushing to change voting procedures to require hand-counting of ballots in next March's primary elections. In Texas, party officials are allowed to control primary voting procedures.
Typically, both Republicans and Democrats rely on county election officials to administer elections, but GOP leaders in several counties are moving to run their own elections at the precinct level and hand-count ballots on Election Day.
Republicans in Dallas, Hays, Eastland, and Gillespie counties have already approved plans to hand-count primary ballots. Orange County Republicans approved a similar plan over the summer.
Meanwhile, election officials in Collin, Williamson, and Bastrop counties have said they're proactively changing their voting procedures and equipment in response to a Trump executive order in March that sought to mostly ban voting equipment that uses barcodes or QR codes on paper ballots to speed up vote counting, reports The Texas Tribune.
Many states require (or effectively use) a paper ballot for every voter (usually hand-marked paper ballots or paper ballots printed by a ballot-marking device for accessibility) that are then tabulated by optical scanners, which makes them paper-ballot based, but not "paper-only" counting, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
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