Texas Processes 200,000 Backlogged Voter Registrations Before Deadline

The Texas Secretary of State's Office announced it will process a backlog of 178,000 to 200,000 voter registration applications in time for the November 3 general election. The backlog resulted from a software update that caused the Texas Department of Public Safety to stop forwarding registrations to county election offices for 11 months. Officials discovered the error two weeks before the October 5 registration deadline.

To resolve the crisis, the Secretary of State's Office is providing grant funding to counties to hire additional personnel. State officials confirmed that registrations submitted through the Department of Public Safety before October 5 remain valid based on their original submission dates. Voters who registered via the department but do not appear on the rolls may cast provisional ballots, which will be counted following verification.

State Senator Paul Bettencourt linked the failure to a database error and software updates, noting he had begun asking oversight questions in June. Annette Ramirez, the state's largest voter registrar, confirmed that the updated rolls would be completed before the election.