Delayed voter applications highlight the difficulties of registering in Texas, experts say

But in September, Votebeat and the Texas Tribune reported an untimely flaw in that system: DPS failed to send counties thousands of voter registration applications and updates submitted through that web portal, dating back to October 2025. The agency blamed the error on a software update. The problem has sparked bipartisan calls for an investigation into what went wrong, and state officials so far have provided few details.

“We live in a system that has been designed to make things harder for voters,” Sarah Chen, the senior supervising attorney at Texas Civil Rights Project, told Votebeat for this article. “We don’t have online voter registration, except for this teeny little carveout, and because of the teeny little carveout, now we have these technical glitches resulting in this backlog.”

On top of the backlog of unprocessed applications, county election officials had to process hundreds of applications submitted in person and mailed in by Oct. 5, the voter registration deadline. Officials have promised every record will be processed, but advocates such as Chen are worried some voters could be disenfranchised if they aren’t added to the rolls in time.

On Sept. 25, the Texas Secretary of State’s Office told counties it would offer grants to reimburse “costs incurred above your routine operational expenses related specifically to the increased number of DPS voter registration applications,” though it isn’t clear how much money is available or where the funds come from.

Some local election officials say they had noticed a slowdown in the flow of applications from DPS and flagged it to the Texas Secretary of State’s Office over the summer, but weren’t sure of the cause. Trudy Hancock, the elections administrator in Brazos County, said her staff noticed they’d receive a handful of applications through the state system one day, none for a couple of days, and then several the next.

It didn’t make sense, Hancock said, “especially those days when we wouldn’t get any applications. Our local DPS office has a line of people out the door every day, so how come there were days where we weren’t getting any applications from DPS?”

The Texas Secretary of State’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.

Affected voters ‘did everything right’

When asked whether he was concerned about the error or whether he had offered DPS specific direction on how to handle it, Gov. Greg Abbott’s office referred questions to the agency and the Texas Secretary of State’s Office. At a press conference on Sept. 24, he said DPS had told his office the issue was “fully resolved.” He also said county election officials were already working to process the applications.

In an emailed statement in late September, DPS said it proactively noticed the problem, investigated and found that the issue was connected to an October 2025 software update by “a third-party vendor, whose software handles these batch transactions.”

Emily French, Texas Policy Director at Common Cause, said the state should find a way to reach out to all impacted voters, especially since several statewide races on the Nov. 3 ballot are expected to be close.

“That should be step one,” French said. “Tell every affected voter you’re eligible, you did everything right. You will be registered to vote — tell every affected voter they can vote a provisional ballot.”

State officials said voters who don’t appear on the rolls because of this error can still ask to cast a provisional ballot, and election officials will count it once they confirm the voter had registered via DPS by the appropriate deadline.

But there are concerns that having to fill out a provisional ballot unexpectedly will cause confusion at polls, which members of the Texas Senate Democratic Caucus highlighted in a Sept. 25 letter to Abbott.

State senators sent the governor a list of questions, including “What safeguards failed?” and “What support will the state provide to counties?” They also want to know how many of the applications and updates that languished were submitted before the March primary.

State Rep. Mihaela Plesa, a Democrat who sits on the House Elections Committee, said that she’s going to push for tighter protocols in the upcoming legislative session to ensure that future errors are caught earlier.

“I’m going to be looking at ways to require fast alerts and repairs,” Plesa said. “Notify the secretary of state of any affected county, notify applicants about what’s going on, and definitely protect the voters’ original submission.”

Members of Congress, including U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson of Texas and U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla of California, both Democrats, have also called for investigations. So have key Texas Republicans, including state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, who has championed legislation on election administration and voter list maintenance for years, and state Rep. Matt Shaheen, the chair of the Texas House Elections Committee.  

Shaheen said he has spoken with DPS officials and is investigating what exactly went wrong to ensure it does not happen again.

“I’m going to personally make sure whoever is responsible for the mistake is held accountable,” he said. But Shaheen said the problem is dissuading him from supporting online voter registration.

Election officials cite ongoing technical challenges

Texans who submitted voter registration applications or updates via the DPS portal had no way of knowing something was wrong unless they checked their voter registration status.

County election officials who flagged an issue, including Hancock, told Votebeat they initially assumed the problem was related to issues with the state’s voter registration and election management system, which is known as TEAM.

The state in July 2025 overhauled its voter registration system using Louisiana-based election technology vendor, Civix. Election officials have since raised ongoing concerns about how the system works.

Kristin Miles, the Bastrop County elections administrator and current president of the Texas Association of County Election Officials, told Votebeat that the way TEAM works is making it harder for officials to get through the backlog of voter registration records.

For instance, TEAM only allows county officials to see 30 records at a time on their screen, and they have to be sorted through one by one, before officials can see additional records. Miles and her staff of four are working through more than 2,200 records.

In late September, the secretary of state’s office told election officials they’re trying to prioritize a fix for that issue.

This story was produced by Votebeat and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.