Texas Election Administration Management (TEAM) System Independent Technical Assessment Follow Solicitation

This Request for Proposal (RFP) establishes the requirements for a six-week, independent assessment of the Office of the Texas Secretary of State’s (SOS) Texas Election Administration Management (TEAM) system modernization project. [...] The SOS requires an independent, time-bound technical and operational assessment of the existing system to be conducted. The assessment should evaluate the system architecture, codebase quality, infrastructure configuration, database design, operational performance, and alignment with statutory requirements. The engagement must culminate with a prioritized list of critical fixes and associated remediation strategies and a determination of whether the system can be remediated within six months or whether an alternative path is indicated.

Included in Scope of Services

• Architecture review—evaluation of system design, component relationships, integration points, data flows, and scalability characteristics.
• Code review—targeted assessment of critical subsystems, code quality, technical debt, and adherence to modern development practices, using a risk-based sampling approach scoped to what is achievable within the engagement period.
• Infrastructure and performance analysis—review of hosting environment, resource allocation, monitoring, observed performance characteristics under load, and available performance evidence, including bottlenecks that can be identified within the engagement period without conducting a formal load test unless separately authorized.
• Database assessment—schema design and normalization, physical characteristics, query performance, indexing strategy, data integrity, and migration/upgrade paths.
• Requirements gap analysis—mapping of statutory voter registration requirements to implemented system functionality, identifying gaps and non-conformances.
• Key partner interviews—structured interviews with state program staff, vendor development team, and local election officials to understand requirements, workflows, and pain points. Local office interviews must include large, medium, and small jurisdictions, based on voter registration population, to ensure a diversity of operational perspectives.
• A prioritized list of critical fixes and associated remediation strategies.
• Salvageability determination—explicit recommendation on whether the system can be remediated within six months, with supporting evidence and risk factors.

Excluded in Scope of Services

• Penetration testing or formal security audit (may be recommended as follow-on work).
• Implementation of recommendations or remediation work.
• Procurement recommendations for replacement systems.
• Legal review of vendor contract terms.
• Detailed assessment of integrated systems outside the voter registration system boundary (e.g., Department of Public Safety and Health and Human Services) is excluded, except to the extent necessary to understand interfaces, data flows, dependencies, and risks affecting the voter registration system.

Deliverables

| # | Deliverable | Format | Due |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Final Assessment Report | PDF/DOCX | End of Week 6 |
| 2 | Executive Presentation | PDF/PPTX | End of Week 6 |

The Contract shall commence upon the issuance of a Notice of Award by the SOS and end at 11:59 PM (CT) on August 31, 2027. The Contract may be renewed as needed, and each renewal may not exceed an additional one (1) year for up to three (3) optional years.

The period of performance in which the Respondent shall conduct and complete the work associated with this RFP is six (6) weeks.

Travel and expenses (T&E) should be estimated and included in the response to this Request for Proposal (RFP).

Respondents shall provide, with their proposal, any proposed agreements the Respondent intends to be part of the contract award.

THE SOS WILL NOT SIGN FORM CONTRACTS. THE SOS WILL NOT BE BOUND BY ANY VENDOR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.

The SOS shall have ten (10) business days from receipt to review each deliverable.