Texas election officials and policy experts urged lawmakers Monday to modernize the state’s election system, citing persistent issues with voter registration software, outdated registration procedures, and rapidly evolving artificial intelligence technology.
During a House Committee on Elections hearing, lawmakers examined why more counties have not adopted the Texas Election Administration Management (TEAM), the state’s voter registration database, as their primary election management platform and what improvements are needed before broader implementation is possible.
TEAM relaunched in July 2025 after the state paid software vendor Civix $17 million to modernize the decades-old platform.
Christina Adkins, the Secretary of State’s director of elections, said every county submits voter registration data to TEAM. However, about 57 percent of Texas voters live in counties that use third-party election management software to process registrations and administer elections before synchronizing that information with the state database.
“Most of the counties that are not on the system, they’re having to pay,” State Rep. Valoree Swanson (R–Spring) said. “They would love to be on the free provided system, but the TEAM system has not been capable over these years, which it was supposed to be.”
Witnesses said several technical issues continue to create additional work for county election offices, including duplicate voter records caused by data mismatches between TEAM and third-party systems, data reliability problems stemming from software rollbacks, and problems with the vote-by-mail module, which Adkins said has “resulted in a lot more work for our counties.”
“In two to three weeks, I think our counties are going to start seeing significant improvements,” said Adkins, explaining that this summer has provided the first opportunity to implement larger system upgrades after multiple elections and redistricting changes took priority.
“The goal is to have a system that our counties want to utilize,” she said.
The committee also discussed voter roll maintenance, including the identification of potential non-citizen registrations.
Beginning last fall, the Secretary of State’s office started screening Texas voter rolls against SAVE, a federal database used to verify citizenship status. Of more than 18 million voter records reviewed, about 2,700 were flagged as potential non-citizens, according to Adkins.
State Rep. Penny Shaw (D–Houston) asked what safeguards exist before November, citing a letter from a self-described longtime Republican election judge. Adkins responded, “There is not an election official in this room … that would say we don’t want to get those fixed.”
Christine Welborn, president of Advancing Integrity and director of the Texas Election Coalition, testified that the same review that flagged potential non-citizens also surfaced 111,000 deceased voters still on the rolls.
“I think it’s really important that we’re making sure that those people are not on the list,” she said.
She argued that restoring public trust in TEAM will require making voter roll data easier and cheaper for the public to obtain. Some counties “will try to charge you thousands of dollars” for the same data other counties give away for free, she said.
Trey Grayson of Responsive Government Action urged Texas to adopt online voter registration instead of relying on paper verification through the Texas Department of Public Safety.
He said online registration verifies applicants directly against DPS driver’s license records, reducing manual data-entry errors and helping keep voter addresses current.
“The vast majority of states in the country have this, and they find it’s more secure than paper registration,” Grayson said.
Lawmakers also considered whether Texas’ election deepfake law should be updated to reflect advances in artificial intelligence.
Andrew Cates, an election law attorney, testified that Texas became the first state to regulate election deepfakes in 2019 but said the law needs to be updated.
“The law that was ahead of its time is already insufficient to cover the capabilities of AI,” Cates said.
Current law applies only to deceptive AI-generated videos released within 30 days of an election, excluding images and audio. Cates recommended expanding the law’s scope, eliminating or extending the 30-day limit, requiring AI disclaimers, and removing the requirement to prove a person intended to deceive voters, which he called “impossible to prove.”
He also proposed allowing people harmed by election deepfakes to sue their creators while preserving protections against frivolous lawsuits that could chill protected political speech.
Cates also warned about political betting markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket. He argued that campaign staff with advanced knowledge of major campaign developments could potentially profit through insider trading, while large wagers could influence donor behavior or voter behavior, particularly in low-turnout races.
Swanson also questioned whether election betting markets are compatible with Texas gambling laws and raised concerns about reports of minors using betting platforms to wager on elections.
The Committee on Elections met again on August 4 to discuss early voting and oversight of the Secretary of State’s office.
