Ed Castillo/Houston Public Media
Less than two weeks ago, the Harris County Tax Office reported having more than 21,000 pending voter registration applications. Now, as early voting began Monday for the Nov. 4 election, that number is down to 73 as an apparent issue with the state’s new software has been resolved.
Annette Ramirez, the Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar, told Houston Public Media on Friday that the issue began July 1, when the Texas Secretary of State’s office began rolling out its new update to the Texas Election Administration Management (TEAM) system.
Many counties, including Harris County, were asked by the secretary of state’s office to hold their voter registration applications for several weeks, Ramirez said.
“Although they rolled out the system July 1, it wasn’t really until July 25 where we were told we could start sending, uploading, and syncing with them [the secretary of state’s office],” Ramirez said.
However, once Harris County began uploading applications to be verified by the state, Ramirez said the applications were stuck pending for much longer than usual.
“So normally [verification] would be an overnight process,” Ramirez said. “So, we would sync daily and then would expect to have received something back when we came back into the office the next day. That wasn’t happening. At our peak backlog, we had applications that had been uploaded between July 7 and Oct. 6 that we still had not received back.”
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The process that voter registration offices use in Texas differs from county to county, with the majority of counties being considered either “online” or “offline.” “Online” counties work directly with the state’s TEAM software, while “offline” counties use their own third-party software that communicates with the state’s TEAM software.
Earlier this month, when Houston Public Media first reported on the backlog, the office for Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson indicated in a statement that one of the major third-party software vendors had closed in August, causing issues. The company was called Votec and Harris County was one of several that still use its software.
“We have all hands on deck to work through these issues,” a spokesperson for the secretary of state’s office said at the time. “Our team is working nights and weekends to help Harris County and 23 other counties statewide that are facing an unprecedented situation in which their voter registration vendor went out of business, leaving 14 Texas counties without a functioning registration system.”
Mixed messaging
Despite the secretary of state’s indication that third-party software was at least partly to blame, Ramirez said it did not contribute to Harris County’s issue.
According to Ramirez, Harris County’s Votec software was not cloud-based, so the county still had access to all of its data. Ramirez said the issue was with the state’s TEAM update not processing applications submitted by Harris County.
“So, our largest hurdle with their system was the waiting for what we call ‘pending state verifications’ — those files coming back to us verifying that they’re active voters,” she said. “At its peak, we were pending 29,900 and some change in voter registration applications to come back.”
Other counties, which are considered “online,” also experienced backlogs during the TEAM update rollout, despite not using Votec or any similar third-party software.
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Chris Davis, the Travis County Voter Registration Director, said Travis County in Austin had already been using the previous version of TEAM after going “online” earlier this year. According to Davis, the new TEAM update was nearly a complete overhaul.
“I think the secretary of state’s office likes using the word ‘conversion’ and not necessarily an ‘update’ when they talk about TEAM 1.0 to TEAM 2.0 because it wasn’t like your Apple iPhone software updates,” Davis said. “It was a total new migration to a completely different kind of online voter, statewide voter registration application system. … So, there was quite a bit of a learning curve there.”
Travis County was similarly asked to hold its registration applications, and Davis said his office also experienced applications getting stuck as pending.
“What we were told was going to be a couple of weeks turned out to be quite a bit longer, and we don’t really have an adequate explanation for you as to precisely why that is,” he said. “Obviously, the state wasn’t ready to figuratively turn the switch on and give the green light to counties to resume voter registration application entry.”
In a statement to Houston Public Media on Monday, a secretary of state spokesperson said applications from online counties are supposed to be processed automatically every time a single application is submitted, while offline counties must complete a manual batch upload, which should be verified within 24 hours.
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According to both Davis and Ramirez, the state conducted training on how to use the new TEAM software earlier this year, before it was rolled out, and issues were apparent even then.
“Counties that attended in-person trainings … were encouraged by the state’s office to bring applications with them so we could learn by doing,” Davis said. “I know our office did. And even then, across that two-day training that we had in San Marcos, we still were not successfully able to enter an application. The system just wasn’t quite ready.”
The secretary of state’s office did not comment on whether issues were present during the training or if any identified during that time were addressed before the rollout.
Statewide outcry
On Friday, the Texas Association of County Election Officials — of which Harris and Travis County are members — sent a letter to the secretary of state’s office pointing out several major issues that counties had to contend with during the transition to the new TEAM software.
The specific issues included in the letter were inconsistent system behavior, statewide training gaps and insufficient support resources and escalation protocols.
The letter — which was also endorsed by the County and District Clerks Association, the Tax Assessor-Collectors Association of Texas and the County Judges and Commissioners Association of Texas — requested that the secretary of state’s office implement a stabilization plan and establish a system of “robust” support and contingency resources.
“This collective request is not easy and calls for decisive, immediate action, along with verifiable progress on the issues outlined above,” the letter reads. “However, without these changes, the current state of the TEAM rollout creates undue risk to voters and the integrity of elections officials. … We stand ready to help undertake exhaustive efforts that ensure the best possible election for all Texans.”
The secretary of state’s office said it received the letter and is reviewing it.
“Our focus right now is making sure that every county is prepared for the Nov. 4 Election,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
Ramirez said Harris County voters can contact the office either through its website or at 713-274-8200 to check on their registration status.
Early voting began Monday and runs until Oct. 31. Election Day is Nov. 4.