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Texas' top election official Thursday issued emergency guidance to counties aimed at protecting ballot privacy after Votebeat and The Texas Tribune confirmed the private choices some voters make can later be identified using public, legally available records.

“It is imperative that we make every effort possible to provide protections to voters while balancing the public’s interest in transparent elections,” Christina Adkins, the election division director for the Texas Secretary of State’s Office, wrote in the memo to county election officials.

In a statement accompanying the new guidance, Secretary of State Jane Nelson said it is “unacceptable for any voter to have their ballot choices publicized.”

Adkins said the steps necessary to protect a voter’s identity could vary, depending on the type of election, the turnout, and details of the request, because a voter’s identity can be deduced using a combination of data points through a process of elimination.

When posting records voluntarily to the county website to make them publicly available, election officials should “redact any information on the precinct election records or on the ballot image that identifies the location at which a voter voted” before posting, Adkins wrote.

When responding to a specific records request, Adkins wrote that county officials will have to weigh the specific facts of each situation when releasing election records. The information election officials were told they should consider withholding includes where voters cast ballots, the dates early voting ballots are received, and some pre-printed ballot numbers.

County officials would have to ask the requester to agree to the redactions, or seek an open records ruling from the state attorney general authorizing them in those specific circumstances, Adkins said.

Natalia Contreras covers election administration and voting access for Votebeat in partnership with the Texas Tribune. Contact Natalia at ncontreras@votebeat.org.

Disclosure: Texas Secretary of State has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/06/06/texas-voting-ballot-secrecy-public-records-elections/.

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