As Austin’s Mueller neighborhood prepares for November voting, a major change just up the road could shape what local voters experience next year. Williamson and Bastrop counties are abandoning touchscreen ballot-marking devices in favor of hand-marked paper ballots, a move spurred by a recent executive order targeting machine-readable barcodes on printed ballots. Travis County — which includes Mueller — is watching closely and weighing the costs of any potential switch.

What is changing

Starting this November, voters in Williamson and Bastrop will receive paper ballots and a pen, mark each contest by hand, and feed the ballot into a scanner. The counties previously used touchscreen ballot-marking devices that printed selections along with a barcode for tabulators to read.

“It’s been a huge undertaking, but we knew that going in,” Williamson County Elections Administrator Bridgette Escobedo said, as reported in local coverage. The county purchased a Ballot on Demand system costing more than $1 million to support the shift and used grant funding under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Escobedo said supply-chain pressures drove the timeline: “There were tariffs, there were supply chain issues, and we wanted to make sure that we were at the front of the line with our vendors,” she said, as reported in local coverage.

Officials said older ballot-marking devices are being stored for now. Every polling place will retain at least one accessible electronic machine to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Why officials made the move

The shift follows an Executive Order signed this spring directing the federal body that sets voting-system guidelines to bar barcode- or QR-enabled ballot systems from certification going forward. The barcode debate centers on whether a voter can verify what a machine will count. MIT political scientist Charles Stewart explained that barcodes are designed to speed counting: “They allow the scanner to basically read faster … It just lists out all of the choices in one place, encoded in a QR code, and that just facilitates and speeds up things,” Stewart said, as reported in local coverage. He also noted there have been “almost no cases” of differences between the human-readable text and the encoded barcode, as reported in local coverage.

Escobedo emphasized that post-election audits are routine. After each election, officials conduct hand audits to confirm machine tallies match voter-marked choices, she said, as reported in local coverage. Audit checks and paper trails are core to verification and have become a main selling point of the hand-marked approach.

The political reality

Despite the high-profile directive from the White House, federal power over local election machinery is limited. “The executive order has no power to direct any counties to do anything or any state to do anything,” said David Becker of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research, as reported in local coverage. States run elections, and Texas follows the federal system-certification framework maintained by the EAC; changes to the federal Voluntary Voting System Guidelines can affect which systems are certified in Texas, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

That’s part of why Travis County is proceeding cautiously. “We’re going to stay the course,” County Clerk Dyana Limon-Mercado said, noting that neither the EAC nor the Texas Secretary of State has issued direct instructions to change equipment, as reported in local coverage. She said replacing all of Travis County’s equipment could cost about $15 million — a price she does not want to pass on to taxpayers without clear guidance, as reported in local coverage. The Commissioners Court has set aside funds in case a replacement becomes necessary.

What voters can expect at the polls

  • If you are registered in Williamson or Bastrop counties: You will hand-mark a full-face paper ballot and scan it. Expect extra poll workers and signage; Williamson County has launched a social media campaign to walk voters through the change, and both counties plan to keep at least one accessible machine at every site, as reported in local coverage.
  • If you are registered in Travis County (including Mueller): County leaders say the current system remains in place for now, with accessible equipment available at every location, as reported in local coverage.

Reactions have been mixed. “I feel good about it,” voter Phyllis said of the paper ballots. “After all the things that have gone crazy with some of these voting machines, I’m in favor of it,” as reported in local coverage. Cindy Martin, who breezed through her ballot, wondered why the county was reverting to pen-and-oval. “It seems like two steps back, one step forward,” she said, as reported in local coverage.

Experts note tradeoffs. Electronic systems can speed tabulation and offer built-in accessibility features, while paper ballots provide a tangible record for audits but may slow voting and lengthen lines without careful planning, research from UMA Technology shows. Analysis by the University of Rhode Island Digital Commons finds that added staffing, more marking stations, and streamlined check-in can mitigate wait times in paper-based setups.

Accessibility and audits

Election sites across the region will keep at least one ADA-compliant, accessible machine at each polling location. Administrators say they are training poll workers to assist voters who need help while protecting ballot secrecy, and they encourage voters to review sample ballots before marking. Common tools to reduce errors include clear instructions, extra privacy booths, and ballot review steps — alongside public, documented post-election audits to confirm machine counts match paper ballots. Those checks are designed to maintain accuracy and confidence during the transition.

Why this matters for Mueller

Choices made in surrounding counties ripple into Travis County’s planning. Williamson County’s rapid growth — adding nearly 25,000 residents between 2022 and 2023, according to the Texas Demographic Center — and its history of high turnout, which led large Texas counties in 2018, as reported by Community Impact, mean operational lessons from this November could inform what Travis does next. If federal certification standards change, Texas could feel the effects quickly; if they don’t, local officials may still opt for configurations that boost public confidence.

For Mueller voters, the takeaway is straightforward: expect the familiar process in Travis County this November, but expect the conversation to continue. Neighboring counties’ paper-ballot rollout — complete with audits, accessibility accommodations, and new Ballot on Demand printing — will provide a test case for the region as 2026 approaches. Read the press release on kvue.com.