The state chose a low-key election to roll out a major update, but anxiety was rising in Bexar County, with a Spurs arena vote on Nov. 4.
Elections Administrator Michele Carew and Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai take questions from the media at the Elections Department on Monday.Bexar County is once again processing new voter registrations, after a months-long delay caused a backlog of 52,000 registrations to wait in limbo.
Elections Administrator Michele Carew told reporters Monday that all outstanding applications will be processed before then, and new voters should receive their registration card in the mail before Election Day.Bexar County is among a number of counties scrambling to move onto the state’s voter registration system, called TEAM, after a popular private vendor, Votec, could no longer do the work.“Technical issues are to be expected with a rollout of this size, and that is why we chose this constitutional election cycle for this transition,” the Secretary of State’s officebig-ticket ballot initiatives, Props. A and B It also had one the biggest backlogs of unprocessed registrations among the counties rolling over, according to Votebeat. Carew said Monday that she didn’t see any evidence Props. A and B were drawing a rush of new voter interest. Rather, a normal amount of new registrations stacked up into a big backlog because the state system had stopped accepting them for its TEAM update, and then weeks later, Votec also went down. “There was a time period where nobody was allowed to put in any type of voter registration to the system,” Carew said. “That snowballed with Votec closing, and that’s when we had to completely halt.” Texas election officials were all in Austin for a conference right after the Votec news, Carew said, and immediately began huddling with the Secretary of State’s office on a plan for this November. Bexar County will use the free TEAM system this election, then transfer to a new private vendor, VR Systems, which has some additional features. Though local leaders have gone to great lengths to avoid using state’s system in the past, Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai said that in this case, they’re lucky for the state’s help.The move entailed sharing data with the state and ensuring all 60,000 Bexar County streets were accounted for in its system, Carew said. Temporary staff was brought on to work through the backlog at the Bexar County Elections Department, and they’re expected to complete about 75% of the registrations by the end of the week.articles this month. That’s right — we’re committed to providing free, fair journalism for all. But without donor support, our nonprofit newsroom can’t do its job to inform and empower your community. Are you in? Your donation of any amount will help keep articles like this one accessible to all San Antonians.Andrea Drusch writes about local government for the San Antonio Report. She's covered politics in Washington, D.C., and Texas for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, National Journal and Politico.
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