Early Voting Negatively Impacted By The Texas Secretary Of State’s New TEAM System

TEAM System Becomes Bottleneck, Voting Locations Still Absent from VoteTexas.gov – No Solutions in Sight

According to the  Texas Tribune, Counties have seen substantial delays in processing voter registration applications and updating registration status. Many election officials have observed TEAM incorrectly generating the voter registration list, which compromises election integrity and ballot access by complicating the update of poll books and the identification of voters who have received a mail-in ballot. Four days into early voting, the Secretary of State’s office still does not have voting locations available to Texans on VoteTexas.gov.

Texas Democratic Party Chairman Kendall Scudder and Kay Parr, President of the Texas Democratic County Chair Association, released the following statements: 

“We are sympathetic to the challenges saddled onto Jane Nelson by the Republican legislature with the TEAM registration system overhaul and the mid-cycle redistricting ploy, but we cannot sit back and simply allow administrative problems to slow down or impede the election and jury process,” said Kendall Scudder, Texas Democratic Party Chairman. “These problems have been reported and known for months - early voting is underway, and Election Day is in 2 weeks - voters have a right to understand their voting process, and the Secretary of State’s office is failing to meet that charge. Whether it is intentional or the result of the Secretary of State being bogged down by an unconstitutional mid-cycle redistricting scheme, it is unacceptable Republican shenanigans, potentially a barrier to the constitutional rights of Texans.”

“What we need to be assured of now is that every county is going to be ready for the November 4th election,” said Kay Parr, President of the Texas Democratic County Chair Association. “I share Chairman Scudder’s concerns, and I would like to know what the SOS’s plan is to communicate with and serve the voters in this state. Currently, there is no information on the SOS site where people can find out where they are supposed to vote. Texas ranks second to last in the nation in voter turnout, and administrative errors like these only add to the problem,” Parr added.

Since the Texas Secretary of State does not have updated polling locations, the Texas Democratic Party has compiled a list by county with their election information. You can find that here.

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