AUSTIN, Texas - The Texas Secretary of State's Office said voter registrations submitted through the state Department of Public Safety will be processed in time to vote in November's election despite a backlog of applications from the agency.
Voter registration backlog will be resolved by November election
The backlog stems from an update of the DPS system that caused it to stop sending registrations to county election offices.
The Secretary of State's Office said the registrations have been sent to counties in time to be processed ahead of the Nov. 3 election and that the agency was sending grant funding to help offset the cost of additional personnel required to process the registrations.
The effective date of a voter's registration will be the day they registered with DPS. As long as that is before the Oct. 5 deadline to register, the voter will be able to vote in November, the Secretary of State's Office said.
What you can do:
If the voter doesn't appear on the roll, but is registered through DPS online services, they will be allowed to cast a provisional ballot.
"Election officials have an established method with DPS to check the transaction. If that voter did register through DPS, the vote will be counted," the Secretary of State's Office said.
The backstory:
Texas DPS failed to forward voter registration applications to county election offices, creating an 11-month backlog of applications. The backlog was discovered last week, just two weeks before the registration deadline to vote in the upcoming election.
State Sen. Paul Bettencourt said on social media that the DPS database error kept 178,000 registrations from reaching county election offices. The problem stems from a software update from the agency's vendor that stopped the transfer of registrations.
What they're saying:
"I had started asking oversight questions in June, as County election officials had been putting in the long hours even then into Voter Registration rolls, as they had issues with the State of Texas TEAM system and their vendor Civix," Bettencourt said. "So literally, work has to be done, and I received a call from the State’s Largest Voter Registrar, Annette Ramirez, saying they will have the updated roll done in time"
How can voters verify their status?
What you can do:
Local election officials urge Texas residents to confirm their voter status immediately, as the registration deadline for the upcoming general election is October 5.
- Check Status Online: Visit votetexas.gov to check your current voter registration standing.
- Submit a Paper Application if Unsure: If your status is unverified or incorrect, you can fill out and submit a paper voter registration application to your local county election office before October 5.
- Duplicate Handling: Officials emphasize that if a duplicate record is created by filing a new paper application, county staff will automatically resolve and merge the files during data processing.
The Source: Information in this article comes from a statement from the Texas Secretary of State's Office. Comments form Sen. Bettencourt come from a post made on X. Information on checked the status of a voter's registration comes from previous FOX Local reporting.