Another software glitch in Texas voter rolls
A software error has caused another problem with Texas’ voter registration logs, KUT radio’s Texas Newsroom in Austin reported.
The glitch caused by “an extra address validation” affected Texans who updated their names and addresses on the state’s government record portal, texas.gov, between Sept. 1 and last week, according to an email sent by the Texas Secretary of State’s office.
Many of the updated records were still missing voters’ new addresses, election officials said. As of Friday afternoon, those addresses are now showing up for
Texas county election officials, according to an email from the Secretary of State’s office.
Alicia Pierce, a spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s office, said the agency sent 15,000 records back to counties. She said the problem has been resolved, and voters will still be able to cast a ballot.
This latest problem comes only days after Texas election officials said they cleared an earlier voter registration backlog. That issue was caused by an error prompted by a Texas Department of Public Safety software update. It impacted more than 500,000 voter registrations submitted since October 2025.
New polls: Dems lead nearly all statewide races
A new poll from the University of Texas at Austin shows Democrats with narrow leads in nearly all statewide races, the Houston Chronicle reported. However, polling in each statewide race is within the margin of error. Only Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico polled positively with 50% of the voters.
James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project, said Democratic competitiveness is driven by a sizable gap in enthusiasm between Democratic and Republican voters — at least 10 percentage points.
No Democrat has won a statewide race since 1994.
State appeals order requiring AC in prisons
Lawyers for the state have appealed a federal judge’s order that all state prison cells be climate-controlled before 2030. The appeal was filed with the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Texas Standard reported. The state also asked U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman to suspend his order, arguing it could disrupt critical operations in the prison system while the appeal continues.
“Throwing chaos and confusion into TDCJ’s ongoing plans to install complete air-conditioning, before the Fifth Circuit has a chance to rule, needlessly wastes finite resources, and frustrates TDCJ’s efforts to acquire funding to address operational and life safety measures to protect its population while moving...expediently to install air conditioning,” the filing said.
In September Pitman issued his ruling in a case filed by prison rights advocacy groups. The groups argued that forcing inmates to endure triple-digit temperatures inside prison cells was unconstitutional. Just more than a third of the state’s prisons are climate-controlled, while 90,000 incarcerated Texans don’t have air conditioning.
The legal fight began with a 2023 complaint filed by Bernie Tiede, a high-profile inmate featured in the film “Bernie.”
Comptroller Huffines plans $3M office renovation
Republican Controller Don Huffines plans to use $3 million in funds from a state agency that manages and invests state funds to renovate his offices, according to The Dallas Morning News. Records obtained by the paper show that Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Co. would pay for the renovation of the comptroller’s executive suite.
Huffines is the GOP nominee for comptroller and was appointed by Abbott to serve out an unexpired term. He faces state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, in November. She called the proposed use of trust company funds “highly inappropriate.”
“The comptroller is supposed to keep those funds segregated,” she said. “You can’t raid it for operational expenses in the comptroller’s office.”
Since being appointed, Huffines has vowed to cut government spending; 41 comptroller employees were fired in recent weeks.
Gary Borders is a veteran award-winning Texas journalist. Email: [email protected]