<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/6a3afcead1265.image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
File Photo.<\/p>\n
(File Photo)<\/p>\n
Another software glitch in Texas voter rolls<\/p>\n
A software error has caused another problem with Texas\u2019 voter registration logs, KUT radio\u2019s Texas Newsroom in Austin reported.<\/p>\n
The glitch caused by \u201can extra address validation\u201d affected Texans who updated their names and addresses on the state\u2019s government record portal,\u00a0texas.gov<\/a>, between Sept. 1 and last week, according to an email sent by the Texas Secretary of State\u2019s office.<\/p>\n Many of the updated records were still missing voters\u2019 new addresses, election officials \u00a0said. As of Friday afternoon, those addresses are now showing up for Texas county election officials, according to an email from the Secretary of State’s office.<\/p>\n Alicia Pierce, a spokesperson for the Secretary of State\u2019s office, said the agency sent 15,000 records back to counties. She said the problem has been resolved, and voters will still be able to cast a ballot.<\/p>\n This latest problem comes only days after Texas election officials said they cleared an earlier voter registration backlog. That issue was caused by an error prompted by a Texas Department of Public Safety software update. It impacted more than 500,000 voter registrations submitted since October 2025.<\/p>\n New polls: Dems lead nearly all statewide races<\/p>\n A new poll from the University of Texas at Austin shows Democrats with narrow leads in nearly all statewide races, the Houston Chronicle reported. However, polling in each statewide race is within the margin of error. Only Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico polled positively with 50% of the voters.<\/p>\n James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project, said Democratic competitiveness is driven by a sizable gap in enthusiasm between Democratic and Republican voters \u2014 at least 10 percentage points.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s really significant,\u201d Henson said. \u201cThat is going to be what the last two weeks of this campaign are about \u2014 it\u2019s about Republican campaigns trying to drive up Democratic negatives and trying to stir what is right now a pretty uninspired Republican electorate in the state.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n No Democrat has won a statewide race since 1994.<\/p>\n Abbott says he won\u2019t debate Hinojosa<\/p>\n Incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott says he is better off holding campaign stops around the state than facing his Democratic opponent Gina Hinojosa in a debate, the Chronicle reported.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most important thing that a governor can do is to show up in communities,\u201d Abbott said during a stop in Tyler. \u201cWhat voters want to see and hear, they want to see their governor in their community. They want to have the ability to ask their governor questions.\u201d<\/p>\n Abbott is seeking a fourth term. This is the first race in which he has not debated a Democratic gubernatorial challenger. Hinojosa held a news conference outside the governor\u2019s mansion last week with side-by-side lecterns \u2014 one empty.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is really on-brand for Greg Abbott to spend more money to tell lies about me, rather than showing up in person to debate me,\u201d Hinojosa said. \u201cThese lies are funded by his billionaire donors.\u201d<\/p>\n State appeals order requiring AC in prisons<\/p>\n Lawyers for the state have appealed a federal judge\u2019s order that all state prison cells be climate-controlled before 2030. The appeal was filed with the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Texas Standard reported. The state also asked U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman to suspend his order, arguing it could disrupt critical operations in the prison system while the appeal continues.<\/p>\n \u201cThrowing chaos and confusion into TDCJ\u2019s ongoing plans to install complete air-conditioning, before the Fifth Circuit has a chance to rule, needlessly wastes finite resources, and frustrates TDCJ\u2019s efforts to acquire funding to address operational and life safety measures to protect its population while moving…expediently to install air conditioning,\u201d the filing said.<\/p>\n In September Pitman issued his ruling in a case filed by prison rights advocacy groups. The groups argued that forcing inmates to endure triple-digit temperatures inside prison cells was unconstitutional. Just more than a third of the state\u2019s prisons are climate-controlled, while 90,000 incarcerated Texans don\u2019t have air conditioning.\u00a0<\/p>\n The legal fight began with a 2023 complaint filed by Bernie Tiede, a high-profile inmate featured in the film \u201cBernie.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Comptroller Huffines plans $3M office renovation<\/p>\n Republican Controller Don Huffines plans to use $3 million in funds from a state agency that manages and invests state funds to renovate his offices, according to The Dallas Morning News. Records obtained by the paper show that Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Co. would pay for the renovation of the comptroller\u2019s executive suite.<\/p>\n Huffines is the GOP nominee for comptroller and was appointed by Abbott to serve out an unexpired term. He faces state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, in November. She called the proposed use of trust company funds \u201chighly inappropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe comptroller is supposed to keep those funds segregated,\u201d she said. \u201cYou can\u2019t raid it for operational expenses in the comptroller\u2019s office.\u201d<\/p>\n Since being appointed, Huffines has vowed to cut government spending; 41 comptroller employees were fired in recent weeks.<\/p>\n Home, auto insurance rates trending down<\/p>\n Both homeowner and auto insurance companies have filed proposed premium rate decreases since July, according to the Texas Department of Insurance. The agency said the proposed decreases affect about 700,000 Texas policyholders. Homeowner rate changes have averaged a 4.3% decline over the past 90 days, according to TDI.<\/p>\n \u201cLower rate filings are an encouraging sign for Texas consumers, and we\u2019re pleased to see some relief beginning to reach the market,\u201d said Insurance Commissioner Amanda Crawford. \u201cAs rates moderate, Texans should take advantage of the competitive market, shop around, and make sure they\u2019re getting the best value for their coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n Nearly 160 companies sell auto and homeowners insurance in Texas.<\/p>\n Gary Borders is a veteran award-winning Texas journalist. He published a number of community newspapers in Texas during a 30-year span, including in Longview, Fort Stockton, Nacogdoches, Lufkin and Cedar Park. Email:\u00a0gborders@texaspress.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"File Photo. (File Photo) Another software glitch in Texas voter rolls A software error has caused another problem…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[12604,132,134,133,3747,2135,27,6877,2281,4101],"class_list":["post-476882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-alicia-pierce","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-houston-chronicle","tag-james-talarico","tag-texas","tag-texas-department-of-public-safety","tag-texas-secretary-of-state","tag-university-of-texas-at-austin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476882","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=476882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}