Texas Clears Voter Backlog as Advocates Warn of Trust Concerns
County officials across Texas have been scrambling to process delayed applications prior to the state's October 5 deadline.
Texas election officials have successfully cleared a backlog of over 500,000 voter registration records after a software issue, ensuring eligible voters can still participate in the November 3 midterm elections. The deadline to register to vote in Texas is October 5, with early in-person voting starting on October 19. Counties have been working to process registration and update files collected during visits to the Department of Public Safety (DPS) due to technical difficulties with a system update back to October 2025.
Voting advocates are concerned about the delays and confusion, particularly among young, working-class Texans of color who may already feel disenfranchised. These voters, such as first-time voters and students who often move, are especially vulnerable as every additional step presents another potential opportunity for errors. Harris County, which has the largest voting population, has handled approximately 75,000 delayed records from DPS, with about 11,000 files requiring manual review.
Only a few hundred remain pending final precinct assignment, and officials expect to finish before the weekend. Harris County's Tax Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar, Annette Ramirez, emphasized that their top priority is ensuring every eligible voter who registered on time can cast a ballot. Dallas County processed 68,104 late records and has registered 13,677 new voters.
Despite these efforts, concerns persist about the system's reliability, as some voters have received updated driver's licenses but remain unable to confirm their registration online. The Texas Secretary of State's Office will not prevent eligible voters from casting ballots, offering grant funding to counties to cover extra personnel costs.
The Texas Senate race is notably close, with Attorney General Ken Paxton and Democratic nominee James Talarico competing for the position. While the registration issues are nearly resolved, voting advocates argue that the episode has damaged trust in the state's voter registration system.
Written by urgent.news from Newsweek's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
