County describes emergency move from failed vendor to state 'Team' system and seeks short-term consultant extension

Elections staff told commissioners they had to move immediately from the vendor that hosted their voter-registration and poll-book software after the vendor went offline. The office migrated records to the state’s Team system and, with staff and volunteers, processed nearly 8,000 suspended applications so voters would have registration records for the election.

The administrator said the vendor (identified in the packet as Votag/Votec) ceased reliable service and that staff hired consultants to secure access to data and images. ECM Today is managing the office’s image vault as an emergency backup; staff said they will ask commissioners court to extend the consultant agreement for six months so locally runnable tools and retrieval scripts can be developed without a long-term commitment.

Commissioners and staff discussed that about 245 counties have moved to the Team system and that the statewide rollout is still creating capacity issues — some reports can take up to several hours to generate — which is why the office is monitoring options and may consider third-party systems only if necessary after the primaries and May elections.

The administrator also reported the office purchased ES&S poll-book tablets to replace functionality lost with the vendor and will request additional poll books, precinct counters and other equipment to handle the primaries; staff said some items will be requested from commissioners court and some will be acquired by the office directly.

Commissioners acknowledged the update and staff said they will return with cost estimates and a formal recommendation for any longer-term system changes.