{"id":326380,"date":"2026-06-07T09:04:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T09:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/326380\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T09:04:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T09:04:44","slug":"texas-secretary-of-state-jane-nelson-the-states-chief-election-official-resigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/326380\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson, the state\u2019s chief election official, resigns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Texas\u2019 free newsletter here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson announced Tuesday she will resign effective July 17, capping off three and a half years as the state\u2019s top election official. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been my goal to ensure that voting in Texas is secure, accessible and fair,\u201d Nelson said in a press release. \u201cWe have worked extensively to ensure accurate voter rolls and to educate voters about what they need to know to vote with confidence.\u201d <\/p>\n

The press release did not say why Nelson is resigning from her role. Her office did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

By law, Gov. Greg Abbott is required to nominate someone to fill the vacant position \u201cwithout delay.\u201d It\u2019s unclear how quickly Abbott will move to fill Nelson\u2019s role or whom he is considering for the job. <\/p>\n

How Texas safeguards elections \u2014 and what still poses a threat<\/p>\n

Get the latest reporting on voting technology, misinformation, the push for hand-counting ballots, and more in Votebeat Texas’ free newsletter, delivered twice a month.<\/p>\n

Abbott\u2019s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the governor praised Nelson in the press release. \u201cSecretary Jane Nelson has been a true champion for the people of Texas and an extraordinary Secretary of State,\u201d he said. \u201cI am deeply grateful for her long and loyal service and outstanding leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nelson, a Republican, served in the state Senate for 30 years before becoming secretary of state in 2023. Nelson was the longest-serving Republican woman in Senate history and the first woman to lead the Senate Finance Committee, which writes the state\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

She was also the first secretary of state to be confirmed by the Senate since 2017. Nelson\u2019s three immediate predecessors resigned without receiving a full-Senate confirmation vote.<\/p>\n

The release noted that Nelson presided over \u201cseven successful statewide elections with a cumulative 27 million ballots cast,\u201d and managed the disbursement of millions of dollars in grants to local counties, among other things.<\/p>\n

During her time as the state\u2019s top election official, Nelson\u2019s office complied with the U.S. Department of Justice\u2019s request<\/a> for access to the state\u2019s full voter roll, one of 15 states to do so. The data Nelson\u2019s office handed over included identifiable information about the state\u2019s 18 million registered voters, including dates of birth, driver\u2019s license numbers, and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers. Election security experts and voting rights groups criticized the move, saying it was a violation of voters\u2019 privacy.<\/p>\n

Nelson\u2019s office also began using a federal database called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, last year to verify the citizenship status of registered voters. The state said the review identified 2,724 potential noncitizens on the voter roll, but county election officials later determined<\/a> some of the flagged voters were actually citizens after all. In addition, they found that hundreds of the flagged voters<\/a> had registered through the Texas Department of Public Safety, which requires proof of citizenship, such as a passport, and keeps copies of such documents on file.<\/p>\n

Nelson\u2019s use of SAVE has led to at least two lawsuits by voting rights groups who claim the database is inaccurate and could lead to the disenfranchisement of eligible voters. They also argued the state should have checked DPS records before sending the list of potential noncitizens to county election officials for investigation. Last month, Nelson\u2019s office asked DPS<\/a> to check the entire list of potential noncitizens against its driver\u2019s license records. <\/p>\n

The lawsuits are still pending in federal court.<\/p>\n

In the past year, Nelson\u2019s office has also come under scrutiny from county election officials following the overhaul of the state\u2019s election management and voter registration system, known as TEAM. <\/p>\n

Since its release a year ago, election officials have repeatedly asked Nelson\u2019s office<\/a> to fix the system\u2019s functionality problems, which they say make completing already time-consuming voter registration tasks less efficient.<\/p>\n

Natalia Contreras covers election administration and voting access for Votebeat in partnership with the Texas Tribune. Natalia is based in Corpus Christi. Contact her at ncontreras@votebeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28,52870,3602,19681],"class_list":["post-326380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-secretary-of-state-jane-nelson","tag-texas-tribune","tag-votebeat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}