Monday, Oct. 5, is the last day to register to vote in Texas for the Nov. 3 election, and it arrives as county election offices finish working through a pile of registrations that the Texas Department of Public Safety did not pass along on time.
The trouble began with a DPS system update that dates to October 2025, Newsweek reported. Texans who asked to register or update their voter information while doing business with DPS online had those requests stuck, and the records did not reach county registrars until months later.
State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Republican, said in a post on X that about 178,000 forms, some from October 2025, never made it to the right election offices, which he blamed on "typical unintended IT upgrade consequences," The Daily Texan reported.
Counties then received the records in bulk. Travis County's voter registrar said about 32,000 arrived in a single night, and Dallas County said it got 68,104 late records on Sept. 23 and has processed all of them. Harris County reported about 75,000.
What the state says
The Texas Secretary of State's office told Newsweek that the backlog will not keep eligible voters from casting ballots. "The effective date of the voter registration will be the day of the DPS transaction," spokesperson Alicia Pierce said, so a transaction made on or before Oct. 5 counts for this election. The office said it is offering grants to counties for the extra staff time.
Voters who registered through DPS but do not show up on the rolls can cast a provisional ballot, and officials can check the transaction with DPS and count the vote once the registration is confirmed, the agency said. Newly processed voters may not see their status online right away, Dallas County officials noted, because a state voter ID number still has to be assigned.
