Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson stepping down

AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson announced Tuesday she will resign effective July 17, capping off three and a half years as the state's top election official.

"It has been my goal to ensure that voting in Texas is secure, accessible and fair," Nelson said in a press release. "We have worked extensively to ensure accurate voter rolls and to educate voters about what they need to know to vote with confidence."

The press release did not say why Nelson is resigning from her role. Her office did not respond to a request for comment.

By law, Gov. Greg Abbott is required to nominate someone to fill the vacant position "without delay." It's unclear how quickly Abbott will move to fill Nelson's role or whom he is considering for the job.

Abbott's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the governor praised Nelson in the press release. "Secretary Jane Nelson has been a true champion for the people of Texas and an extraordinary Secretary of State," he said. "I am deeply grateful for her long and loyal service and outstanding leadership."

Nelson, a Republican, served in the state Senate for 30 years before becoming secretary of state in 2023. Nelson was the longest-serving Republican woman in Senate history and the first woman to lead the Senate Finance Committee, which writes the state's budget.

She was also the first secretary of state to be confirmed by the Senate since 2017. Nelson's three immediate predecessors resigned without receiving a full-Senate confirmation vote.

The release noted that Nelson presided over "seven successful statewide elections with a cumulative 27 million ballots cast," and managed the disbursement of millions of dollars in grants to local counties, among other things.

During her time as the state's top election official, Nelson's office complied with the U.S. Department of Justice's request for access to the state's full voter roll, one of 15 states to do so. The data Nelson's office handed over included identifiable information about the state's 18 million registered voters, including dates of birth, driver's license numbers, and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers. Election security experts and voting rights groups criticized the move, saying it was a violation of voters' privacy.

Nelson's office also began using a federal database called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, last year to verify the citizenship status of registered voters. The state said the review identified 2,724 potential noncitizens on the voter roll, but county election officials later determined some of the flagged voters were actually citizens after all. In addition, they found that hundreds of the flagged voters had registered through the Texas Department of Public Safety, which requires proof of citizenship, such as a passport, and keeps copies of such documents on file.

Nelson's use of SAVE has led to at least two lawsuits by voting rights groups who claim the database is inaccurate and could lead to the disenfranchisement of eligible voters. They also argued the state should have checked DPS records before sending the list of potential noncitizens to county election officials for investigation. Last month, Nelson's office asked DPS to check the entire list of potential noncitizens against its driver's license records.

The lawsuits are still pending in federal court.

In the past year, Nelson's office has also come under scrutiny from county election officials following the overhaul of the state's election management and voter registration system, known as TEAM.

Since its release a year ago, election officials have repeatedly asked Nelson's office to fix the system's functionality problems, which they say make completing already time-consuming voter registration tasks less efficient.

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