TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) — Travis County state representatives on Thursday asked Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson to help the county fix issues caused by a recent update to the Texas Election Management (TEAM) system.
Representatives delivered a letter to Nelson, stating that the current situation could result in registered voters having to use provisional ballots. “Texans did their part by submitting their applications on time,” the letter states.
“The responsibility falls on the Office of the Secretary of State to ensure that the system works as promised, that TEAM training is available and comprehensive, and that voters are not denied their constitutional right to participate in their democracy,” the report states. “I strongly urge your office to take immediate action to ensure that every eligible voter is able to participate in this election without unnecessary barriers.”
Votebeat reporter Natalia Contreras told KXAN on October 3 that the update to TEAM was “huge” and that the ensuing issues have upset election workers across Texas.
The delegation said it had heard reports of problems in Bexar, San Patricio, Tarrant and Travis counties. Among the issues they mentioned are the following:
- Failed to update voter addresses;
- Failure to fill out the department information correctly; and,
- Registration data is not saved.
Rep. Vicki Goodwin, D-Austin, told KXAN she initially heard from a Travis County resident whose application was not processed. This led to me learning that the problem was more widespread than I initially thought.
“We were very concerned that people might not be able to vote in the next election,” she said. “We wanted to make sure the Secretary of State was doing everything he could to fix this problem.”
She added that she wants to solve these problems to avoid losing confidence in Texas elections.
Nelson’s office filed its response Thursday afternoon. In it, she said the upgrade was a “once in a decade” upgrade, and they wanted to get it done before the 2026 midterm elections.
“This has been a massive undertaking that includes migrating more than 20 million records and extensive training with our county partners to learn the new system,” Nelson said. “With a rollout of this size, we always anticipated technical issues – which is why we chose Constitutional Elections to be the first election to use TEAM 2.0. Our staff systematically addresses any technical issues as they arise.”
She added that Travis County has brought its backlog to the normal range expected of the state’s largest counties. The Travis County Clerk’s Office said it processed more than 37,000 applications in three weeks — a “very high volume” for an off-year election.
“With the help of other departments in the Tax Department, we have effectively doubled the workforce processing voter registration applications… It has been a challenge but we have been in close partnership with the county clerk and will be ready to begin early voting on Monday,” a Travis County Elections spokesperson said Thursday.
To the public, Nelson was conciliatory in her response, saying her staff has been “working nights and weekends for months” to fix the system.
“It is noteworthy that as of today there is no backlog in most counties, including Dallas, Bexar, El Paso and other densely populated counties,” she added. “Further complicating this rollout, our staff is working to assist 24 counties where voter registration company VOTEC suddenly ceased operations in August. This has left these counties without an effective voter registration system.”