Texas’ mid-decade redistricting and the state’s problems updating its voter registration system, TEAM 2.0, have led to a two-month delay in the Lone Star State sending out voter registration certificates.
Normally, the yellow postcards would have already gone out in the mail, showing registered voters their assigned district and representatives. But now, with exactly a week left before the start of early voting in the March primary, the cards still haven’t been distributed.
Under Texas law, the certificates should have been issued by Dec. 6, though there’s no penalty for a late mailing.
The registration cards list the voter’s local voting precinct, their congressional, state Senate and House districts and county precincts along with city and school districts. As such, the congressional districts printed on the forthcoming documents need to be updated as a result of the mid-decade redistricting, which altered the data for 18 million Texas voters.
The Republican-controlled Texas Legislature redrew the state’s political map during a special session last summer in effort to give the GOP more U.S. House seats. Gov. Greg Abbott, who ordered up the redistricting at the behest of President Donald Trump, signed the new map into law shortly after its passage.
Texas voters don’t just use their state registration cards as cheat sheets to understand where they vote and who represents them but as a secondary form of proof of identification to expedite the voting process at the polls. Even so, the card isn’t required to cast a ballot, provided the voter can provide another valid form of ID.
“The Bexar County Elections Department is working with the Secretary of State’s Office to expedite the delivery of your new cards,” county officials said in a Dec. 31 press statement. “Cards are anticipated to be printed and mailed to voters in the coming weeks well before the 2026 Primary Elections.”
However, more than a month has passed since the statement, and voters are still wondering where their voter registration cards are.
When contacted by the Current late last month, Bexar County officials said the Texas Secretary of State is still experiencing issues.
“The Secretary of State’s office continues to experience a few challenges; however, they are working closely with us,” Bexar County Public Information Officer Monica Ramos said.
“If you haven’t received a new voter registration card in the mail yet, don’t worry,” Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson’s office said in an undated statement shared in early February by Kerr County officials.
“Due to legal challenges of the redistricted Congressional maps, counties were delayed in being able to assign precincts and print cards in the usual time frame,” the statement continued.
The redistricting delays are compounded by lags in data input by the Texas Secretary of State’s TEAM 2.0 voter registration system, which created backlogs in several Texas counties in the leadup to both the fall election and spring primary.
Bexar County, for example, had a backlog of over 70,000 unprocessed voter registrations in the fall and another 7,000 ahead of the primaries. The county’s Election Administrator was able to work through both by hiring temporary staff.
If voters don’t receive their state ID cards before the start of early voting, they have the option of casting a ballot without the card, provided they bring an acceptable form of identification.
The seven acceptable forms of ID to vote at a polling place are:
- Texas Driver License issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS)
- Texas Election Identification Certificate issued by DPS
- Texas Personal Identification Card issued by DPS
- Texas Handgun License issued by DPS
- U.S. Military Identification Card containing the person’s photograph
- U.S. Citizenship Certificate containing the person’s photograph
- U.S. Passport (book or card)
More voting information is available at the Texas Secretary of State’s website.
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