NACOGDOCHES COUNTY, TX (KTRE) -
The statewide election delay, caused by debate over redistricting lines, has given voter registrar Karen Butler more time than usual to double check voter data.
On Thursday, she found a glaring mistake.
"There were roughly 3,000 records that did not have mailing zip codes," said Butler, voter registration administrator.
Mailing addresses without zip codes means all those voter cards would be returned to sender.
A state software glitch is suspected.
"The other problem was the mailing addresses had sometimes been changed to a former address in Nacogdoches and the worse case that we saw was it had their previous address that was even in another county," said Debra Gaston, election administrator.
The Secretary of State's office is looking into what happened and wanting to know how widespread is the problem.
"That's gonna be an issue all over the state and that is the issue of the zip codes and some of the information that's not being downloaded to the state," said Nacogdoches County Judge Joe English.
Nacogdoches County wants the problem fixed, so much so they came in over the weekend to check one address after another, inserting zip codes along the way.
Butler is still at it.
The corrections are crucial.
Election workers know once the state order to print and send out voter registration cards
is given, they will have to respond.
Election workers were hoping for the call right away, but now a little extra time would be appreciated.
We've obtained a copy of the instructions sent to local election officials by the Secretary of State's office just two hours ago.
Even if your voter registration certification expired, you can still vote as long as your address didn't change.
If you moved within the same county, all you need to do is update your address with the local voter registrar.
If you moved to a new county, you're required to fill out a new voter registration application at least a month before the election.
Copyright 2012 KTRE. All Rights Reserved.
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2012 WorldNow and KTRE, a Raycom Media Station.
