Cameron County court terminates Votec agreement, votes to convert voter data to state system and choose ES&S e-poll books

Cameron County Commissioners Court voted Tuesday to issue a 30-day notice terminating its software maintenance, warranty and support agreement with Votec Corporation, authorize conversion of the county’s voter registration data to the Texas Secretary of State’s election administration system, and select ES&S as the county’s recommended e-poll book supplier.

County elections staff told the court it had grown increasingly concerned about Votec’s ability to support the county through the November constitutional election and the next year’s primaries. “It’s become apparent that the company is in a position where it may not be available to us for the remainder of the year,” elections staff said during the meeting, and staff recommended issuing a 30‑day nonrenewal and termination notice under the existing agreement’s termination provisions.

The court approved the termination on a motion by Commissioner Lopez, seconded by Commissioner Gadsall; the motion carried by voice vote. County legal counsel and elections staff said the agreement had been renewed in February 2025 but the renewal does not take effect until Oct. 1, and that the contract paperwork in the county files did not show a company signature for the renewal. Staff told the court they are actively securing locally stored copies of voter registration images and other data, and that a majority of scanned images are already backed up in the county’s election security vault.

After the termination vote the court unanimously approved initiating an offline-to-online data conversion to the Secretary of State’s Texas election administration management team system, authorizing staff to begin work with the state to migrate street indexes, districts and voter files. Elections staff said they expect the county’s conversion to be complete by Sept. 16 and described the move as part of contingency planning to ensure the county can qualify and check voters in the November election.

On the same agenda, elections staff presented their review of three e-poll book vendors—ES&S, NoInc (runs on Apple iPad), and VR Systems—and recommended ES&S for its integration with the county’s ballot-on-demand equipment and for ease of setup at polling sites. “ES and S is our choice, judge,” elections staff said. The court approved the recommendation on a motion by Commissioner Lopez, seconded by Commissioner Gottes; the motion carried. Staff said a purchase item for the actual poll books will be brought back to the court for final approval next week.

Elections staff also described contingency measures: securing a local copy of voter images that remain in the vendor’s cloud, internally developed fallback tools to track check-ins if external systems fail, and possible month-to-month arrangements to retain access to data while the county migrates systems. Staff added that about 26 other Texas counties use the same Votec software and that jurisdictions around the state are taking similar steps to secure files.

Commissioners and staff discussed contract-signature concerns and legal exposure if the vendor were to stop service abruptly. County counsel recommended issuing the 30-day notice to reduce ambiguity about future access and support.

The court’s actions on the vendor agreement, the state conversion and the e-poll book recommendation were presented as operational steps intended to preserve the county’s ability to run elections on schedule rather than long-term policy changes. The county judge and elections staff said they will continue to report updates at upcoming meetings and that staff will return with a procurement item to purchase the selected ES&S equipment.