The Democratic candidate for Texas attorney general, Johnson, says he will investigate Deloitte's role in a voter registration backlog that left nearly 200,000 Texans' applications unprocessed. The problem emerged after Deloitte updated the state's voter registration system, and automatic transfers stopped reaching counties. Johnson described it as a genuine but inexcusable error that undermines confidence in elections.
The criticism is not limited to Democrats. Republican state Sen. Paul Bettencourt also pointed to Deloitte and the Texas Secretary of State's office, saying the vendor's upgrade caused the transfers to stop and that state personnel should have caught the problem. The Secretary of State's office responded that registrations were sent to counties in time for the Nov. 3 election and that grant funding is helping counties process the delayed applications.
The episode highlights Texas' growing reliance on outside contractors, a trend Johnson says has accelerated as Republicans have sought to shrink government. Deloitte has faced scrutiny before: it was asked to administer the Texas Energy Fund in 2023, and its contracts came under fire a year later after a loan-program finalist was tied to a CEO convicted of embezzlement. The voter registration issue arrives as Texas' midterm races draw national attention, with Democrats hoping to break a long statewide losing streak.