Local Texas election officials have much to say about the state’s new centralized voter registration system — not much of it kind.
A Texas Association of County Election Officials (TACEO) survey of members is 24 pages of frustration and aggravation. The February survey, obtained by The Federalist, sought feedback on the biggest administration burdens faced by election officials using the database. TACEO got lots of feedback.
“Going into TEAM to get ANY work done only to see it either spin or not function at all,” one elections official said of the Texas Election Administration Management (TEAM) 2.0, a glitch-ridden update to the original clunky database. “Not being able to have access to SO MANY previous functions in old TEAM. Very frustrating!”
“County Chairs are frustrated — they’re hitting barriers when entering candidates for the big Primary,” another elections administrator complained.
One respondent summed up the situation in three words: “SLOWER THAN DIRT.” It was a common refrain.
‘Deflection and Gaslighting’
More frustrating, it seems, is the response — or lack thereof — from Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson’s office and the vendor of the $17 million system, Civix. The Louisiana-based company claims a majority of states use its “real-world tested applications” to ensure “the integrity of voter and election-related data.”
Frontline election officials, however, have for months been raising red flags about data integrity and security, legal and compliance risks, and the erosion of public trust in Texas elections. In a letter to Nelson’s office, TACEO asserts the concerns have fallen on deaf ears as the Secretary of State cut off communication with the people dealing with the TEAM system “improvements.”
A spokeswoman for the Texas SOS said the upgrade has been quite an undertaking, involving the migration of more than 20 million records and the training of hundreds of users on the new system.
“Since that time, we have had four successful elections including the March 3 primary in which a record-number of Texas voters cast a ballot,” Alicia Pierce, Assistant Secretary of State for Communications, wrote in an email response to The Federalist’s questions. “While it is not unexpected to have issues launching and implementing a new system, we continue to systematically address problems and offer county election officials direct support.”
Pierce added that election officials have multiple ways to contact the Secretary’s office every day about TEAM.
But critics say they feel abandoned.
One county elections official described the “deflection and gaslighting” from the Secretary of State’s office as “diabolical.”
It’s not a good time for widespread problems with an election administration system that’s used by the vast majority of Texas’ 254 counties. With the clock ticking on late May’s runoff elections, winnowing the party candidates for U.S. Senate, lieutenant governor, and attorney general, the stress level is rising in local election offices across the Lone Star State.
‘Just So Inconsistent’
Local election administrators say the issues began almost immediately after the TEAM system was overhauled last summer. Long delays in updating vote records. Trouble confirming residency of registered voters. Disappearing data. Incomplete data. Incorrect data. Headaches processing voter registration applications. Compliance problems. And, according to several survey respondents, help in fixing the issues continues to come at a glacial pace.
“The issue we’re having is it’s just so inconsistent. What works today may not work tomorrow,” Randall County Elections Administrator Shannon Lackey told The Federalist in an interview this week.
Lackey, who served as president of the Texas Association of County Election Officials last year, said she has worked in election administration for 20 years and the frustration level is higher than she’s ever seen it.
Lackey said she’s been unable to print daily voter credentials. The county’s voter history from last month’s primary is incomplete, or at least it was on Tuesday. She said her first file was off by 5,600 voters. In some cases, Lackey said, primary and runoff mail ballots in the system are marked to go out to the incorrect voter — Republican ballots to Democratic Party voters, Democrat ballots to Republicans.
The answer from the vendor and the Secretary of State’s office? “We’re working on it.”
Lackey, like other county election officials, says the problems have and will continue to drive an increase in provisional ballots cast.
She said she wasn’t particularly fond of the old voter registration database, but she and her colleagues would gladly take it back these days.
“Sometimes it’s better to dance with the devil you know,” Lackey said.
‘Absolutely Crucial’
Last September, four government organizations — TACEO, the County and District Clerks Association, the Tax Assessor-Collectors Association of Texas, and the County Judges and Commissioners Association of Texas — sent a joint letter to Nelson to express their members’ displeasure with the software. The coalition recommended ideas to address the “implementation challenges.”
Acknowledging the “massive undertaking” of the TEAM system overhaul, the groups advised that strong partnerships were critical in keeping up with the problems.
“These challenges merit immediate action, and counties look forward to working with the Secretary of State and Civix to identify and address each issue,” the letter states. Things deteriorated from there, according to the organizations.
By October, rising frustrations led to canceled meetings. Then came the “withdrawal and alienation,” with the Secretary of State’s office and Civix representatives giving local elections officials the “cold shoulder,” an internal document obtained by The Federalist asserts.
Ultimately, according to the county representatives, the relationship “collapsed under he weight of unanswered questions, perceived ‘gas lighting’ and unresolved systemic issues.”
Christine Welborn, president of Advancing Integrity and director of the Texas Election Coalition, said her organization is concerned that the TEAM system’s dysfunction is threatening election integrity.
“We have inaccuracies in our voter rolls, we have the potential for fraud, errors that could cause an inaccurate election,” Welborn told The Federalist in a recent phone interview. “It all needs to be addressed now before we have runoffs and local elections decided by a handful of votes.”
“It is absolutely crucial everything is correct.”
