Texas DPS error leaves unknown number of voter registrations unprocessed weeks before midterms
Unknown number of Texas voter registrations went unprocessed due to DPS error
Just weeks before the midterm elections, Texas election officials discovered that the Department of Public Safety failed to forward an unknown number of online voter registration applications to county registrars. The applications, submitted through the DPS driver's license portal, produced incomplete records that were never sent. The state has begun delivering the backlog, but officials have not said how many voters are affected or what caused the error. Counties now face processing delays ahead of the Oct. 5 registration deadline.
A voter who registered through DPS online services but does not appear on the rolls can cast a provisional ballot. Election officials have an established method with DPS to check the transaction. If that voter did register, the provisional vote will be counted.
- nblgbg
When I first registered in Texas, they told me that something didn’t match the details with Social Security and that they couldn’t process my registration. Unfortunately, they never told me exactly what didn’t match. After chasing Social Security and the county multiple times, I eventually figured out that someone had put an extra space in my middle name. The staff processing my request were very helpful, but unfortunately, they didn’t even know what exactly was not matching.
It’s really unfortunate that you have the burden of proving that your information is correct. It took me about 6/7 weeks to complete the entire process.
They also mail you a voter registration card (which itself isn’t useful anywhere), and if, for any reason, it doesn’t reach you, your name will be suspended from the list.
The whole process feels like it’s designed to discourage people from voting.
- agos
the entire concept of "voter registration" (and associated shenanigans) is so alien to my European brain that I fail to see any reason why the richest country in the world does things this way other than voter suppression. What am I missing?
- hn_acker
I posted an older article because I wanted the focus to be on the online registration system. According to a newer article, the number is easily in the tens of thousands [1].
[1] https://www.votebeat.org/texas/2026/09/23/dps-error-backlogg...
- simonw
TIL a great deal of voter registration in Texas still happens using paper forms: https://www.votebeat.org/texas/2024/10/28/voter-registration...
And apparently they sometimes get lost or processed incorrectly, leaving people disenfranchised.
- skullone
Oregon auto atically registers you to vote when you get a license/ID, and has a pretty reliable mail in voting system. Other states interested in their constituents should do the same
- rootusrootus
They are really persistent, but it might still not be enough to prevent the democratic candidate from becoming senator, since the republican one is so odious that plenty of reliable republican voters are signalling their intent to vote for the democrat as a come-to-jesus message to their own party.
- thadt
So - we found a bug, are fixing it, and it will cause an extra load on the people sorting through the backlog. Seems like a system working as it should. Bugs happen, and it is this kind of situation which makes me glad individual states manage their own voting systems - a problem in one doesn’t impact everyone.
As a TX resident possibly affected by this, I for one am grateful for my neighbors at the local election office working hard to get this resolved.
- etchalon
It'll be the least shocking thing ever to find out this "error" disproportionately affected Democratic leaning districts.