Is it? It doesn't seem to work properly in all cases (to me). But I don't fully understand what it is that you're trying to do, and I also don't fully understand ContentControls

Remember, this code triggers when you *leave* each of the content controls in your document, so you need to deal with all cases of the .Tag property.

If I leave voteauth with Jerry Lewis selected, voteauthin turns white.
But if I enter voteauthin, click the delete key (so that I don't see the "Click to enter authority as required" text), and then leave voteauthin, it goes back to Rose (although typing something leaves it as white).

So I know not all bases are covered at that moment. There is more going on which maybe Greg can explain with his deeper understanding of content controls.

But you would probably be well-served to deal with voteauthin whenever you leave it, just to make sure... although I suspect some of what you perceive as "working" may be something to do with default settings on content controls.

I really haven't wrapped my mind around the particulars of content controls yet, so I suspect I'm missing an essential concept in trying to explain exactly what is going on here.