TEXAS — The Texas Department of Public Safety experienced a system error that prevented certain incomplete voter registration applications from being transmitted to the Secretary of State's office and county election officials. State officials began transmitting the delayed voter registration records to counties on Tuesday.

Submissions dating back to October 2025 were not sent to Texas county voter registrars until this week. The Texas Department of Public Safety stated that certain records submitted online were incomplete and not fully transmitted, and the agency stated the system issue had been resolved.

The Texas secretary of state's office became aware of the problem last week, when election officials flagged that they had noticed a surge in older voter registration applications coming from DPS in TEAM, the state’s voter registration system. According to reports, the office identified the backlog after noticing the unusual volume of dated applications entering the system.

"This is really out of left field. Knowing that this one element of (state) applications didn’t come through, and we had no insight on it," Chris McGinn said. McGinn serves as Executive Director of the Texas Association of County Election Officials. "There’s going to be a lot of counties that are paying a lot of overtime," he added.

Democratic State Representative James Talarico criticized the delay. "Less than two weeks before the voter registration deadline, thousands of Texans are now in the dark about their voter registration status — even more aren’t aware of this error at all," Talarico said. Talarico is running against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton for a U.S. Senate seat.

"This is what a broken, corrupt political system looks like: Texans follow the rules, register to vote before the deadline, and still risk losing their God-given right to the ballot box because their government failed to do its job," Talarico said.

The deadline to register to vote in Texas is October 5, 2026. Early voting in Texas begins on October 19, 2026. A voter who does not appear on the state’s rolls but believes they registered can cast a provisional ballot.

Why It Matters

The transmission failure affects tens of thousands of records just weeks before the October 5, 2026 registration deadline. County election officials must process the backlog before early voting begins on October 19, 2026, requiring extended hours and additional resources to ensure voters are properly registered.

Harris County has roughly 300,000 voters on the suspense list, indicating the scale of registration challenges facing large jurisdictions. The error shows dependencies between state agencies in maintaining accurate voter rolls and the operational impact on local election administration when technical failures occur.

Timeline

In October 2025, submissions dating back to that month were not sent to Texas county voter registrars until this week. On September 22, 2026, the Texas Secretary of State's Elections Division stated that Bexar County received a little over 45,000 online Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) voter registration transactions that didn’t fully transfer into the State’s TEAM system, as reported in a bulletin sent to county election and voter registration officials. On September 23, 2026, Bexar County Elections Administrator Michele Carew stated that her office received a little over 45,000 online Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) voter registration transactions that didn’t fully transfer into the State’s TEAM system, according to a statement from the Bexar County Elections Department.

What's New

Harris County Voter Registrar Annette Ramirez stated that if for some reason a voter is unable to update that registration before October 5, then they can still show up at the polls to vote. She said that when the poll worker goes to check them in, they will ask the voter to complete a statement of residence to confirm where they live, and then they will go on to let them vote.

The Texas secretary of state's office became aware of the problem last week, when election officials flagged that they’d noticed a surge in “older” voter registration applications coming from DPS in TEAM, the state’s voter registration system, according to reports. The Texas Department of Public Safety stated that certain records submitted online were incomplete and not fully transmitted. The Texas Department of Public Safety stated the system issue had been resolved. Chris McGinn said the situation was really out of left field and that county officials had no insight on the missing applications. Montgomery County received approximately 34,780 records to process.

How Sources Differ

Records regarding voter registration forms received by Bexar and Travis counties present differing figures. Travis County Elections Office records state that Travis County received more than 35,000 voter registration forms from the Department of Public Safety.