Secretary of State Orders Audit to Decide Whether Voter System Can Be Saved

The Texas Secretary of State’s office will bring in an outside auditor to decide whether the state’s voter registration system can be saved, the office’s elections director told county election officials this week. The audit “will evaluate the system itself, including assessing the completeness and functionality of the modules delivered, an assessment of user needs, and a determination of the long-term salvageability of the current system,” Elections Director Christina Adkins wrote in an email that Votebeat obtained and reported Friday. The audit is expected to begin in December so the results are ready for the Legislature’s 2027 session.

The system is the Texas Election Administration Management system, known as TEAM, the statewide database of registered voters, which also provides election management support for many county election offices. Secretary of State Robert Howden announced on Thursday that his office will form working groups of county election and voter registration officials to set priorities for the system “as redevelopment continues.” Adkins wrote that the groups are expected to meet in December and January and will draw in county officials from every role that uses TEAM, from election administrators to tax assessor-collectors.

“We have now conducted multiple successful statewide elections using the updated system, and we have learned a great deal,” Howden said in the announcement. “We need the input of our county election officials and their staff,” he said, so that the new features match what election workers need. He said that with no major statewide election on the horizon, the state has an opportunity to make the upgrades.

The office’s own account of the past year explains part of the delay. When a private elections vendor went out of business in the summer of 2025, the state had to move 11 counties onto TEAM in a matter of weeks, a process the office said normally takes months. The mid-decade congressional redistricting then forced new precinct lines in more than 70 counties and paused the system’s redevelopment.

County officials had asked for help for more than a year. In October 2025, election officials asked the state to halt the rollout of the updated system, Votebeat reported, and in October 2026, weeks before the election, counties again faced a backlog of voter registration records that they had to clear on short notice, the Texas Tribune reported. The state has also set up a ticketing system so counties can track the problems they report, according to Votebeat.

“County election officials carried the weight of TEAM’s unresolved issues through every election this year, and we are glad to see the Secretary of State taking appropriate steps to address them for the benefit of all Texas voters,” said Kristin Miles, the Bastrop County elections administrator and president of the Texas Association of County Election Officials. “TACEO will be watching closely to make sure these commitments are carried out in full, on schedule, and with genuine county input.”

The audit’s answer will land with a new set of officials. Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Howden in July, and Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa takes office in January with the power to name her own secretary of state, subject to the Texas Senate’s consent. Adkins’s timeline puts the auditor’s findings before the Legislature that convenes January 12.