Local and state election officials are assessing the impact of widespread ballot errors after the new state-mandated voter registration platform, Texas Election Administration Management (TEAM), affected ballots cast on Nov. 4, 2025.
While the election has concluded, the ballot errors locally left some voters unable to vote on certain issues within their precinct, while others were mistakenly able to vote on issues they weren’t eligible for.
“The problem is the Secretary of State’s office imposing a new voter registration system that wasn’t ready to go live,” said Lamar County Elections Administrator Tricia Johnson.
Johnson explained that while Lamar County has 26 precincts, the new system divided the county into 181 sub-precincts, which caused the ballot errors.
“This issue was discussed continuously on the listserv with other counties, and when we spoke with our TEAM representative, we were told we’d have to ‘clean up the precincts’ after this election,” Johnson said. “This is something that should have been addressed and fixed by TEAM prior to its rollout to ensure voters received the correct ballot.”
While TEAM — the Texas Election Administration Management system — has been in use since the early 2000s, the state launched a complete overhaul in July 2025, and since then, numerous county officials have reported similar issues to the Director of Elections.
“We followed every procedure outlined by the Secretary of State,” Johnson said. “These ballot problems were not limited to our area, and local election staff had no role in determining precincts, ranges, or ballot content.”
Johnson said her office will begin the process of cleaning up precincts and ranges shortly after canvassing the Nov. 4 election to ensure the issue doesn’t happen again.
“As a member of the Texas Association of County Election Officials (TACEO), we have all responded to surveys about the new system,” Johnson said. “The TACEO board has met with the Director of Elections and other officials to voice the problems counties across the state are experiencing.”
