Tarrant County is paying for new software to clean up its voter rolls, which could help elections staff stay ahead of thousands of voter registration challenges, according to the county elections administrator.
In Texas , people can challenge other residents' voter registrations. The Houston-based nonprofit True the Vote has driven mass challenges across the country. The organization created an app called IV3 that makes it easy to compare public records and make thousands of challenges at a time, with the goal of preventing what True the Vote calls
At a meeting Tuesday, Tarrant County commissioners approved $46,000 for a year's access to skip-tracing software, often used by debt collectors.
The software will help identify people who may have died or moved away to keep the local voter rolls current, Elections Administrator Clint Ludwig told 四虎影院 Thursday.
"This is kind of a way that we can check the information we have against the most current information available,鈥� Ludwig said.
Skip-tracing gets its name because it helps find people who have skipped town, , a company that offers the service.
The software gives the county a wider range of public records to consult, Ludwig explained. His office already gets a report of everyone who has died in Tarrant County each month, but that doesn鈥檛 include Tarrant County voters who died somewhere else, he said. The skip-tracing software does include that information.
A small group of people in Tarrant County sent in more than 15,000 voter registration challenges from January to August last year, according to documents obtained in a public records request. More than half came from one person. One of the challengers told 四虎影院 she was concerned about fraudulent voters impersonating dead people on the rolls 鈥� an extremely rare crime, .
Officials in , Collin County and other counties have reported similar floods of challenges.
Elections officials say many of the challenges rely on outdated information, and most of the registrations they flag have already been reviewed, 四虎影院 reported last year.
Tarrant County鈥檚 new software is not necessarily a response to voter registration challenges, Ludwig said, but it will help his office get ahead of them, lessening the load on his staff.
鈥淎 byproduct of us being able to be more accurate would reduce those challenges, because now there's less sitting there to challenge," Ludwig said Thursday.
Ludwig emphasized this is not a voter purge. People don鈥檛 just get kicked off the voter rolls if someone challenges their registration. The elections office sends them an address confirmation in the mail, and if they don鈥檛 respond, they鈥檙e placed 鈥渙n suspense,鈥� Chris McGinn, executive director of the previously told 四虎影院. People on suspense can update their address at the polls.
At Tuesday鈥檚 meeting, the software contract was bundled up in a single vote with several other items. Democratic County Commissioner Alisa Simmons was the sole 鈥渘o鈥� vote.
Right before she voted no, Simmons questioned Ludwig over whether the software was necessary. Ludwig suggested it could save the county money on voter registration checks in the long run, but Simmons pressed for hard numbers.
鈥淗ow do you know it'll be cost savings? You've not done any analytics,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his is a feeling.鈥�
"It鈥檚 not a feeling, commissioner. I mean, we received over 14,000 challenges from the public last year,鈥� Ludwig said.
There鈥檚 been no influx of challenges again this year, Ludwig said Thursday, but he expects them to ramp up again ahead of the midterm elections in 2026.
Got a tip? Email Miranda Suarez at msuarez@kera.org.
四虎影院 is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider today. Thank you.
