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Natalia Contreras
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Search complete. 10 mentions across 8 episodes found for "Natalia Contreras".
Oct 14, 2026
Chris MosserHOST
Meanwhile, there's another lawsuit brewing over that DPS website screw-up that left more than 500,000 Texas voter registrations in limbo.
Chris MosserHOST
Natalia Contreras at VoteBeat and the Texas Tribune says those problems remain unresolved with less than a week to early voting, and Texas voting rights groups, including the League of Women Voters of Texas and Move Texas Civic Fund, are suing the state.
Chris MosserHOST
claiming these failures violate a 2021 settlement requiring a reliable voter registration process through the Department of Public Safety's online driver's license portal.
Chris MosserHOST
The lawsuit was filed in Bexar County and calls for state officials to be required to immediately restore reliable registration procedures, document these failures that have been stacking up for most of a year, and prove compliance within a month.
Tatum OwensHOST
But while voter registration might be done for voters, the same cannot be said for our hardworking county election officials.
Tatum OwensHOST
From Natalia Contreras at VoteBeat, these election protectors are working late into the night without expectation of overtime pay, facing a mountain of work caused by software errors on top of the normal influx of registrations you see at the deadline.
Tatum OwensHOST
You'll remember that a DPS portal software error caused hundreds of thousands of voter registrations to be backlogged.
Tatum OwensHOST
That duty remains with Texas's 254 counties and their respective election officials, using the state's voter registration processing and management software TEAM, while juggling the software's bugs and errors that are extremely prevalent with long wait times for solutions.
Eleanor KlibanoffHOST
And now as we're getting closer to this general election, I-- there's just this feeling of sort of distrust in the air on both sides, a lot of anxiety about the election itself.
Eleanor KlibanoffHOST
Um, here to be our election integrity therapist is, uh, Natalia Contreras, the senior Texas reporter for Votebeat.
Eleanor KlibanoffHOST
Uh, Natalia, thank you so much for joining us.
Natalia ContrerasGUEST
Thank you.
Sarah AsheCORRESPONDENT
It's still not entirely clear how we got here.
Sarah AsheCORRESPONDENT
Natalia Contreras is a reporter for VoteBeat.
Natalia ContrerasSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
We're still trying to figure out what exactly happened, what exactly went wrong, and, you know, what exactly is being done to fix it.
Sarah AsheCORRESPONDENT
She says the Texas Department of Public Safety noticed an error with a vendor and reported it to the Secretary of State in August.
Sarah AshCORRESPONDENT
It's still not entirely clear how we got here.
Sarah AshCORRESPONDENT
Natalia Contreras is a reporter for Votebeat.
Natalia ContrerasSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
We're still trying to figure out what exactly happened, what exactly went wrong, and, you know, what exactly is being done to fix it.
Sarah AshCORRESPONDENT
She says the Texas Department of Public Safety noticed an error with a vendor and reported it to the Secretary of State in August.
Sarah AshCORRESPONDENT
It's still not entirely clear how we got here.
Sarah AshCORRESPONDENT
Natalia Contreras is a reporter for VoteBeat.
Natalia ContrerasSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
We're still trying to figure out what exactly happened, what exactly went wrong, and, you know, what exactly is being done to fix it.
Sarah AshCORRESPONDENT
She says the Texas Department of Public Safety noticed an error with a vendor and reported it to the Secretary of State in August.
David BrownHOST
Texas Democrats are calling on Governor Greg Abbott to investigate what's happened.
David BrownHOST
This was first reported by VoteBeat, and Natalia Contreras from VoteBeat joins us now to tell us more.
David BrownHOST
Natalia, welcome back.
Natalia ContrerasGUEST
Hi, thanks for having me.
5 MINS LATER
Natalia ContrerasGUEST
So I would just encourage people to contact their voter registrar directly.
Natalia ContrerasGUEST
And yes, they can also still go to the state VoteTexas.gov to check their voter registration.
David BrownHOST
Natalia Contreras reports for VoteBeat.
David BrownHOST
They've been doing a lot of reporting on this.
Craig CohenHOST
The registration deadline for the November election is now 10 days away.
Craig CohenHOST
To tell us more, we're joined now by the reporter that broke the story, Natalia Contreras with Vote Beat Texas.
Craig CohenHOST
Natalia, good morning.
Natalia ContrerasGUEST
Good morning.
Natalia ContrerasGUEST
So if you turned in that application on October 5th, which I hope people don't, I hope people are doing, you know, if you haven't registered, I hope you do it now.
Natalia ContrerasGUEST
But even if you postmark it by the deadline, that is still going to be effective even if you go to vote you go to go you go and you check in and they tell you look you're not on the voter registration list you're going to have to cast a provisional ballot just be assured that your record as long as the county has your application and it's postmarked on that date if you cast a provisional ballot your ballot will be counted so Like I said, even though county officials are going to be processing all of these applications beyond the voter registration deadline, and even if yours isn't processed on time, as long as it was submitted on time, that's what's important and that's what matters.
Craig CohenHOST
Natalia Contreras is a senior reporter with Vote Beat Texas.
Craig CohenHOST
Natalia, thank you very much.