Texas says voter registration backlog has been cleared

Texas election officials said counties have cleared a voter registration backlog involving hundreds of thousands of applications, The Associated Press reported through the Orange County Register. The announcement came Thursday, days before early voting begins Monday.

Alicia Pierce, a spokesperson for the Texas secretary of state, said the office was not aware of any county that still had applications waiting to be processed. State officials have not stated the total number of delayed applications.

What caused the backlog

State officials attributed the delays to a software problem involving the Texas Department of Public Safety. The problem began in October 2025 and affected records submitted online when people registered to vote or updated their registration while renewing a driver’s license.

DPS previously said some records were incomplete and were not fully transmitted. As a result, many applications did not reach voters’ home counties, which are responsible for processing and verifying them. The affected records included new registrations and updates such as address changes.

County election offices hired temporary workers to process the delayed records. Harris County, which includes Houston, handled more than 75,000 delayed applications and completed its backlog earlier in October. Travis County Tax Assessor Celia Israel said the additional work increased pressure on the county’s election office as other applications arrived before the election.

What voters can do

Voters can check their registration status before going to the polls. The secretary of state’s office said anyone who arrives at a polling place but does not appear on the voter rolls may cast a provisional ballot.

The League of Women Voters and the Texas Civic Fund filed a lawsuit alleging that Texas did not maintain a reliable voter registration process. U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla of California also asked Gov. Greg Abbott for details about the failure’s scope and cause.