By Terri Burke and Laura Bray
For the “Progressive Views” column, Boerne Star, May 9, 2026
It’s not just elected statewide leadership that’s trampling on voting rights (see “Progressive Views” from April 11). The office of the Secretary of State (TxSoS) has only two responsibilities under the Texas Constitution, one of which is to maintain the voter registration files and voting records. (The other is to register business entities and maintain their public records.) The current Texas Secretary of State, Jane Nelson, was appointed by Gov. Abbott in early 2023 and is accountable to him.
Under her leadership, the TxSoS Elections Division, previously a very efficient and responsive agency, has become much more difficult to work with.
The Texas Democratic Party (TDP) operates a statewide voter database called VAN (Voter Activation Network); TxSoS provides voter file updates on a regular basis to populate this database. (Republicans use a different database.) Democratic county parties (including the Kendall County Democratic Party, KCDP) and candidates use this data to plan voter contact, fundraise, and organize “get out the vote” actions. However, during this current election cycle, these voter file updates have been repeatedly delayed and full of errors.
The fault lies entirely with TxSoS. TDP has been reluctant to publicly call out TxSoS; at first, TDP believed that TxSoS was working to address the problems. At this point, TDP has decided it can no longer stay silent about the problems.
The voter file TDP received from TxSoS in March was riddled with errors statewide, including missing or unassigned precincts, incorrect or missing Congressional District assignments, and incorrect Texas Legislature District assignments. An outside quality control (QC) group advised TDP to not distribute a file with so many errors (a wildly high 10% error rate). TDP had to manually edit assignments and make other changes to make the file more usable. TDP staff worked around the clock one week in late April to reduce the error rate to 2%.
TDP has now submitted its third voter file to the QC group for approval (the previous two did not pass their quality control process). On Monday, the quality control group approved the file for distribution.
In addition to voter file problems, TDP has still not received voter history files for the November 2025 Constitutional Election or March Primary Election from TxSoS (after more than six weeks of no response), nor does TDP have an expected date to receive those files.
These problems don’t just affect voting, either. Criminal cases in Texas, particularly in high-volume areas like Harris County, are experiencing delays partly due to inefficient jury pool creation, often hindered by outdated voter records and high rates of undeliverable summons. Inadequate voter records directly impact the number of potential jurors who receive notice, compelling courts to summon more people to compensate for those who cannot be reached.
Many statewide voters still don’t have their 2026 voter registration cards, two months after the March 3 primary. While these voters are still registered (and can vote with a photo ID), the lack of the cards caused confusion during the primary. Voters wondered if they were still registered or if something had gone awry. KCDP answered many such calls at our office. You can always check your current voter registration status at www.votetexas.gov, and we encourage all voters to check this website regularly.
It’s very doubtful that Sec. Nelson, on her own initiative, is directing the TxSoS Elections Division to drag its feet. She is almost *certainly* doing so at the direction of Gov. Abbott (and him, at the president’s urging), to make it look like “state-run elections don’t work.” Which then leads to “justification” for the federal government to get involved with state elections. (See the above “Progressive Views” article for more information.)
It’s clear that our Republican leadership wants the Texas election system to fail. It’s long past time to elect statewide leadership that works in the interests of voters, not against them. Time to elect Democratic leadership.
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Terri Burke is the Executive Director of TDP. Laura Bray is the former KCDP Chair. The TDP Data Team also contributed to this article.
