Texas sued over delay in nearly 600,000 registrations

What the lawsuit alleges

Two voting organizations have sued Texas officials over a software error that allegedly prevented almost 600,000 voter registration applications from reaching election administrators.

The League of Women Voters of Texas and Move Texas Civic Fund brought the case against officials including Secretary of State Robert Howden and Department of Public Safety Director Freeman F. Martin.

The complaint says the problem affected a Department of Public Safety website used for driver’s license renewals and address changes. From October 2025 through February 2026, Texans who chose to register to vote through the site received receipts confirming their choices, but their registration information was not recorded, the groups allege.

Backlog reaches county officials

The lawsuit says the Department of Public Safety failed to transmit nearly 600,000 registrations to the secretary of state for distribution to county voter registrars. Some applications had been delayed since October 2025.

That left county offices facing a large group of applications shortly before the November 2026 election. Early voting was scheduled to begin the Monday after the lawsuit became public.

The groups accuse state officials of failing to maintain procedures that allow Texans to register while completing eligible driver’s license transactions. They are asking the court to require the two state agencies to establish and maintain a functioning registration process.

What the groups want from the court

The lawsuit also seeks records showing where registration failures occurred. It asks for an order requiring state officials to submit evidence within one month that they are complying with the court’s requirements.

U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla of California separately asked Gov. Greg Abbott and Howden to explain how the failure happened and identify how many registrations were affected.