er less than an hour's notice about their plans, and said it was up to the Legislature, not the courts, to change the law. Abbott, who has joined the call for closing the primaries, has agreed, telling Texas Scorecard that lawmakers  can and should be more responsive to Republicans than a judge may be. 

As chief elections officer for a state whose leaders are heavily focused on election integrity and the threat of voter fraud, Howden will have more to manage than just the November elections. Nelson often found herself facing competing demands from the Trump Justice Department, state leaders, county elections officials and voting rights groups.

During her tenure, Texas was one of just 15 states that gave the U.S. Department of Justice access to the state's full voter roll, including identifiable information about 18 million registered voters. The state also began using a federal database called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, last year, to verify voters' citizenship, leading to at least two lawsuits by voting rights groups.

Nelson raised concerns about that system in a letter to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in April, Votebeat reported Wednesday.

Kristin Miles, the Bastrop County elections administrator and president of the Texas Association of County Election Officials, said in a statement that Howden was assuming a position  which carries the tremendous responsibility of fostering trust in Texas' election system. 

 It will be critical for Secretary Howden to help maintain that trust through the upcoming November general election in Texas, and we stand ready to be a resource and a partner to the new secretary from day one,  Miles said.