Texas Border Business
AUSTIN — As she concludes her final week in office, Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson gave updates on key election programs ahead of the November election.
“Election integrity is a cornerstone of my work as Secretary of State. These updates are a reflection of just some of the work our office has done to further security in the last three years, and they will continue to help protect Texas elections for years to come,” said Secretary Nelson.
Election Security Assessments: The Office of the Texas Secretary of State has kicked off the program to review security protocols for each of Texas’ 254 counties. This includes reviews of physical security such as storage facilities, polling locations, and central counting stations, in addition to information technology security.
“The best way to ensure election security is not for counties to act alone,” said Secretary Nelson. “Instead, the state and counties are partnering together to review critical systems, utilize best practices and benefit from high-level expertise.”
This initiative is funded by an $8 million appropriation from the Legislature. This is the first time a similar assessment has been performed since 2019.
Commercial Mailboxes: Under Texas law, voter registrations must be associated with a voter’s physical residence. While P.O. and similar boxes may be used for mailing addresses, the address tied to the registration itself must reflect the residence.
As part of the agency’s voter list maintenance efforts, the Secretary of State’s Elections Division reviewed the statewide voter registration database for the use of commercial mailboxes listed in place of residence. The office found that 8537registrations are tied to 1069 addresses which are likely commercial addresses.
These registrations have been identified and will be sent to counties to review and investigate.
“Maintaining voter rolls requires continual review,” said Secretary Nelson. “We are working with counties to make sure they can take action on registrations tied to commercial mailboxes in order to prevent fraud and voter confusion ahead of the November Election.”
Military & Overseas Ballots: Thanks to an appropriation of almost $1 million from the Legislature, the Office of the Secretary of State is moving forward with a secure military ballot option to make it easier for our deployed service personnel to participate in our elections.
“Our military members protect our freedoms; we should do what we can to protect theirs,” said Secretary Nelson. “This November, we will be able to offer additional ways for military and overseas voters to securely receive their ballots and exercise just one of the rights they fight to protect.”
Each election security initiative conducted by the Office of the Texas Secretary of State is to ensure Texan votes are secure.
To learn more about Texas’ voting processes and to prepare for the polls, Texans can visit VoteTexas.gov, the state’s official voting resource.
