Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Voter Registration Systems topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Cameron County elections commission recommends switch from state TEAM system to certified VR Systems vendor
Summary
After reporting data errors, costly overtime and thousands of remailings tied to the Secretary of State’s TEAM system, the commission voted unanimously to recommend that the commissioners court authorize contracting with the certified third‑party vendor VR Systems.
The Cameron County Elections Commission unanimously voted March 24 to recommend that the commissioners court pursue contracting with VR Systems, the only currently certified third‑party voter‑registration vendor, after officials described persistent problems with the Secretary of State’s TEAM system.
Remy, the elections office lead, told the commission that the office logged close to 600 hours of overtime and incurred about $17,000 in extra labor to correct TEAM data problems after the March 3 primary. "We had record turnout, at all the locations," Remy said, and added that staff were working late "staying till 3 in the morning to get the information into the system." He described multiple failures in the way TEAM exported data, saying the office had to reenter ballot‑by‑mail applications that did not carry forward and rebuild mailing labels in‑house.
Remy said address and name fields were sometimes combined or multiplied in downloaded reports and that the office must "remail 7,000 certificates to correct that." He told commissioners that these errors created extra work and increased the risk of incorrect mailings or other administrative mistakes that could affect voters.
Support for pursuing a certified vendor was strong. Eddie Garcia, who joined online, said the TEAM problems mirrored reports from other Texas counties and backed using a certified third‑party to prevent the workload from overwhelming county staff. Jared Hakama, identified in the record as the Democratic Party chair, told the commission: "We need to act on this immediately," citing voter complaints about late mail ballots during the primary.
The motion to recommend acquisition of VR Systems through a state contract/buy board passed by voice vote; the commission recorded the vote as unanimous. The recommendation now goes to the commissioners court, which must approve any contract or purchase. The commission did not finalize a contract at the meeting and noted that data conversion and timing would govern a transition ahead of the November election.
