<\/p>\n
An empty bag used to hold Democratic Primary election provisional ballots at the Dallas County Elections Operations Facility on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Dallas.<\/p>\n
Juan Figueroa\/Staff Photographer<\/p>\n
A\u00a0software bug that led<\/a> to at least 590,000 voter registrations not being sent to county officials for processing is far from the only error to strike Texas voter registration systems this past year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Election officials across Texas say they have struggled with unreliable software since Louisiana-based technology and consulting firm Civix rolled out a system overhaul in July 2025.<\/p>\n Despite repeated assurances from the state that fixes are coming, county officials and residents alike have continued to encounter confusion and inaccuracies using the Texas Election Administration Management, or TEAM, system.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n A Dallas Morning News analysis of county and state records shows likely data consistency problems were present even after the Texas Secretary of State\u2019s office acknowledged an error with the state voter lookup tool<\/a>, then said it was fixed on Sept. 15.\u00a0<\/p>\n Local authorities worry that TEAM\u2019s issues may impose an additional administrative burden on counties, just\u00a0weeks before early voting starts Oct. 19.<\/p>\n Texas midterm election: Oct. 5 is the last day to register\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt has become evident that these problems are the result of fundamental system architecture failures by the state’s voter registration database vendor,\u201d the Texas Association of County Election Officials wrote in a Sept. 28 news release.<\/p>\n Secretary of State spokesperson Alicia Pierce did not address the Association of County Election Officials\u2019 criticism in an email to The News.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cTexas has had seven successful elections since the rollout of the newly developed TEAM,\u201d Pierce wrote. \u201cAdditional features addressing county concerns will be rolled out soon as we all prepare for the November election.\u201d<\/p>\n \nData woes\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Texas voters interact with TEAM when they use the state\u2019s voter lookup tool at votetexas.gov<\/a>, which is supposed to show their active or inactive (also known as suspense) status. That data comes directly from county voter rolls, which are sent regularly to TEAM by jurisdictions including Dallas County.<\/p>\n From a sample of 11,000 registered voters, the News found about 160 mismatches between county and state records when comparing Dallas County\u2019s Sept. 1 voter roll to data from the state lookup tool obtained on Sept. 21.<\/p>\n Those discrepancies included differences in voters\u2019 registration status, county of residence and whether they could even be found in the state system. The News focused on voters for whom mismatches would suggest an error in data transmission to TEAM or its data processing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Read more: Here\u2019s what to do if you\u2019re on the suspense list<\/a><\/p>\n Exactly what caused each one of the mismatches is unclear. Some incorrect counties of residence could be linked to a missing data check that the Secretary of State\u2019s Office said its vendor had fixed in a message to county officials <\/a>on Sept. 29.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear how many inaccurate records exist because of underlying bugs, but other users have noticed similar problems with the TEAM system.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re appearing in one place and you\u2019re questioning what your status is when you\u2019re seeing it someplace else, there is absolutely a concern there,\u201d Dallas County Elections Administrator Paul Adams later told The News.\u00a0<\/p>\n The number of voters on the Secretary of State\u2019s March suspense list also differed dramatically from Dallas County\u2019s by about 50,000 voters, though it was only off by about 6,000 voters for February. Records change dynamically, so it is unlikely the publicly posted numbers would ever match exactly.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n County elections administrators have also noted inaccuracies on legally required reports generated through TEAM, according to letters local officials have sent to the Secretary of State\u2019s office, published by Courthouse News Service<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe current status of TEAM and the public facing voter portals could cause some voter confusion,\u201d said Kristin Miles,\u00a0Bastrop County elections administrator and president of the Texas Association of County Elections Officials. \u201cThe message \u2026 has been for voters to contact their local county election officials.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Miles said there are\u00a0failsafes, like backup records, that preserve the integrity of election results in Texas. Voters whose registration status is unclear may also cast provisional ballots at the polls, which undergo more thorough verification for eligibility.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, many county officials are concerned that new bugs with TEAM could pop up, confusing voters more and adding more cleanup for their staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTEAM updates \u2026 carry a risk that a fix in one place creates unintended consequences elsewhere,\u201d Hays County Elections Administrator Jennifer\u00a0Doinoff told Texas House members at an Aug. 3 hearing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \nRocky overhaul\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Civix is the rebranded company resulting from a merger involving TEAM\u2019s previous vendor, PCC. The firm signed a $17 million contract with the Secretary of State in late 2023 to overhaul the old system. Civix also handles voter registration software in Pennsylvania and Iowa. According to its website, it managed records for about 50 million voters in the 2020 election.\u00a0<\/p>\n Shortly after the July software update, county officials began to express concerns. In an October letter, they urged then-Secretary of State Jane Nelson, to \u201chalt any further system-wide rollouts or feature changes until a stabilization plan exists or at least until after the completion of this Election Cycle.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n