About Eligibility Maintenance

Eligibility maintenance is the process of removing from the registration rolls those voters who have become ineligible to vote due to one of these conditions:

  • The voter or applicant...
    • ...has a felony conviction without having their civil rights restored.
    • ...has been adjudicated mentally incapacitated with respect to voting.
    • ...is deceased.
    • ...is not a U.S. citizen.
    • ...is not of legal age to register.
    • ...does not reside at their residential address of record.
    • ...is deemed a fictitious person.
    • ...is a duplicate of another voter record in the system.
    • ...has moved out of the county.

The State requires that removal of these voters be managed and tracked, with each step in the process being reported to the State electronically.

Processing Voter Eligibility

In Voter Focus, the eligibility of voters can be processed using the following methods:

Data is exported from TEAM to one of several types of files: VRU, TDL, DPS, and TX Online. Generally speaking, all these files types are referred to as the TEAM Voter Export files.

VRU and TDL File Data

Much of the voter data that is imported from the TEAM Voter Export files comes from VRU and TDL files. Voter data that is imported and cannot be processed automatically from these file types is initially routed by Voter Focus to one of the following:

  • VOTER REGISTRATION > Eligibility Match Queue
  • VOTER REGISTRATION > Task Notification Queue

The imported data can contain notifications received by the State affecting voter eligibility and mismatching drivers license and Social Security numbers. The entries in these files are referred to as match records. An event type is assigned to each match record that defines the nature of the notification and how it should be handled in Voter Focus.

To learn about the types of matches that are routed to each queue and how to process the records, see Process Voter Records in the Eligibility Match Queue and Process Voter Records in the Task Notification Queue.

DPS and TX Online File Data

Voter registration information can be updated through actions at the Texas Department of Public Safety (TxDPS). These updates are recorded in and exported from TEAM using DPS files. These files can include updates to existing voter records and new voter registrations.

Voter name and address updates that are made by voters on the Texas online service are also recorded by and exported from TEAM using TX Online files.

Most of the data imported from these file types is processed automatically by Voter Focus and does not affect voter eligibility. To learn about the records that are outed to the DPS Queue for manual processing, see Process Records in the DPS Queue.

For an overview about the entire interface, see The TEAM Interface.

Accessing a voter's record via the Eligibility Match Queue or the Task Notification Queue is not required for eligibility maintenance. If you know which voter you want to process, you can simply open their record, click the Eligibility Maint tab to access a list of their potential ineligibility items, and double-click an item to process the match record.

In addition, you can do the following from this tab in the voter record:

  • Record the response to a Notice of Examination (by double-clicking a notice record).
  • Cancel the voter record (for mentally incapacitated and deceased types).
  • Schedule a Notice of Examination (for Non U.S. citizen, under 18 years of age, felon, mentally incompetent types).

Other Information

Notice How Scheduled* Match or Process Type

Address Confirmation Notice

Eligibility Match Queue > match record > Schedule Address Confirmation Notice

Out-of-County Duplicate matches
 

Voter record > Eligibility Maint tab > Schedule Notice of Examination

Non U.S. Citizen, Under 18 Years of Age, Felon, Mentally Incompetent process types

Notice of Cancellation

Eligibility Match Queue > match record > Cancel Record (felon and deceased matches)

Weak Felon and Deceased matches
 

Eligibility Maintenance > match record > Process Non Response to Notice

No response to Notice of Examination within 30 days
 

Voter record > Eligibility Maint tab > Cancel Record

Mentally Incapacitated and Deceased process types
 

Voter record > Eligibility Maint tab > notice record > Voter Admits Ineligibility

In response to Notice of Examination

Notice of Challenge

Task Notification Queue > match record > Send Notice of Challenge

Deceased Verification Failure matches
*Remember that match records can be accessed from the Eligibility Maint tab in the voter record as well as the Eligibility Match Queue and the Task Notification Queue.

The eligibility maintenance notices required to be sent to voters must be set up in PRINTING > Document Maintenance. A document layout for each eligibility maintenance notice—with the required notice and communication types—is provided as part of the Voter Focus software.

To complete the setup process, you will need to:

  1. Create a Microsoft Word mail-merge document for each notice, keeping the following requirements in mind:
    • The data source/recipient list for all mail-merge documents for eligibility maintenance must be MrgVoters.txt, which is located in your \Vr6Sharedbinaries folder on the I drive.
    • The name of the Word document can be anything you choose, but the extension must be DOC. (DOCX extensions are not currently supported.)
    • The file must be saved in the \DOCS folder under \Vr6Sharedbinaries.
  2. Enter the Word document's file name in the Mail Merge Options—Word Document Name field on the Document Maintenance dialog.

Be aware that notices can be scheduled regardless of whether the mail-merge document has been created and associated with the notice. You will see them in the list of notices ready for printing on the Notices Queue dialog, but they will not be printable until the setup described above is complete.

EligibilityMaintenance—Access the Eligibility Match Queue and run the eligibility maintenance programs in List Maintenance.

MatchQueue—Access the Eligibility Match Queue.

VotersEligibilityMaintenance—Perform eligibility maintenance tasks on individual voter records.

These are run from LIST MAINTENANCE > Eligibility Maintenance > Eligibility Maintenance Reports.