Texas Counties Race to Clear Voter Registration Backlog Before Early Voting

County election offices across Texas are working to process a large backlog of voter registration applications that resulted from a data transmission failure at the state level, officials said Wednesday. The problem has surfaced just as election administrators prepare for the start of in-person voting in the midterm elections.

The backlog originated last October at the Texas Department of Public Safety, which allows residents to register to vote or update their registration when they renew a driver's license. An unspecified error prevented a large number of records from reaching applicants' home counties, where registrations are processed and verified. The affected records include both new voter registration applications and updates to existing registrations, such as address changes.

Local election officials said they received no communication from the department about the cause of the backlog or why they were not informed of the issue for nearly a year. "This is really out of left field," said Chris McGinn, executive director of the Texas Association of County Election Officials. "Knowing that this one element of (state) applications didn't come through, and we had no insight on it."

The full statewide scale of the backlog has not been determined, but the association said it runs into the tens of thousands in some of Texas' most populous counties. In Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, the election office received about 45,000 backlogged applications. Some offices will need to hire temporary workers to handle the volume.

In a statement, the Department of Public Safety said certain records submitted online "were incomplete and not fully transmitted" to the secretary of state's office. It said the "system issue" had been resolved but did not elaborate on its nature. County officials said the problem appeared to be with the department's online portal.

Officials acknowledged that some residents may have been unable to vote in the state's March primary or were initially turned away because there was no record of their registration or updated registration.

Counties have until early in-person voting begins on Oct. 19 to finish processing the late-arriving applications. The backlog adds to the workload in a state with a closely watched U.S. Senate race between Democratic state Rep. James Talarico and Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The Texas Secretary of State's office and county election leaders said voters need not worry about their registration as long as it is submitted by Oct. 5. Those who arrive at the polls and do not appear on the voter rolls can cast a provisional ballot, and residents can verify their registration status through the state's online portal or by contacting their county election office.