February 27, 2026
What makes a ballot secure? Most voters never see the answer, and they don't need to. But for boards of election and the printers who serve them, ballot security comes down to dozens of small decisions about paper, ink, packaging, and chain of custody. Each one is a layer. Together they protect both the count and the public's confidence in the count. Here's a tour of what those layers look like.
Security Built Into the Ballot Itself
The first security layer is the paper and the ink. Tamper-resistant stocks make it harder to alter or counterfeit. Security fonts can make stray marks easier to flag. Paper weight, fiber content, and ink adhesion all affect how a ballot reads under tabulation equipment, which is its own form of protection. None of this is exotic. It's a careful match between the design of the ballot and the way it will be marked, scanned, and stored. Boards of election should be able to ask a vendor about each of these choices and get clear, written answers. The right vendor offers those answers proactively.
Security in How Ballots Are Handled
Once the ballots are printed, the next set of decisions is about handling. The goal is a clear chain of custody from the press to the polling place. Common practices include:
• Pre-printed shrink wrap and tamper-evident seals on every carton
• Security-specific tape that shows interference if removed
• Documented handoffs between print, freight, and election officials
• Direct freight delivery rather than open shipping when possible
None of these are unique to a single vendor. What matters is that they happen the same way every time, every order, every cycle. Predictability is a security feature.
Ask Your Vendor How Security Shows Up in Your Order
Whether you're ordering ballot materials or election products, the security questions are the same. What stocks do you use? What packaging options come standard? Who signs off when boxes leave the building? Phoenix Election Printing holds two US patents tied to ballot printing and uses dedicated security packaging for election work. The details of those processes belong inside a procurement conversation, not a blog post, but the headline is simple. Security shouldn't be a surprise. It should be specified up front.
Have a question about how a specific security feature shows up in your printed materials? Get in touch and we'll walk through it with you.
