By Rita Cook
Correspondent
Texas Metro News
AUSTIN – A software glitch has glitched out at least 200,000 voter registration applications at the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The 200,000 voter registration applications have gone unprocessed for nearly a year ahead of the November 2026 midterms.
Texas County election officials were the ones to sound the alarm when a massive DPS voter registration backlog was revealed recently.
Harris County reported 75,000 unprocessed records with at least 2,000 requiring intensive manual review.
Bexar County said they had 45,000 delayed DPS registration transactions.
Alicia Pierce, a spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s office, said the delay would not cost eligible voters their status. It was emphasized anyone left off the active rolls due to the DPS error could still cast a provisional ballot.
After the issues were found, Texas lawmakers and officials were asking where is the accountability, and who will answer for the oversight failures.
State Representative James Talarico said thousands of Texans are left in the dark about their status near the deadline while State Senator Paul Bettencourt stated “If the files were received, pulled, or not, that should have been noticeable. They should have caught it.”
Local officials explained the issue was due to a massive data transfer error by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). DPS oversees registrations when residents renew their driver’s licenses.
What could happen now is that Texas voters who thought they successfully registered through DPS may show up to the polls and find their names missing from the voter rolls.
If an affected voter does arrive at their polling place and their name is missing from the official voter rolls, they will be permitted to cast a provisional ballot.
If a poll worker says they cannot find your name on the registry, the voter does have a legal right to request the provisional ballot. This ballot would be completed normally, but instead of feeding it into the standard tabulator machine, it would be secured inside a provisional envelope.
However, voters do not have to wait until Election Day to fix their status if it is incorrect. An action taken before the deadline will be a much easier administrative fix.
If you have any doubt, check your status immediately. Any Texas resident who used the online driver’s license portal over the last year can verify their active status using the official Texas Secretary of State “Am I Registered?” Tool.
If the online tool shows an “inactive” status or no record at all, or if you have questions about your digital transaction record, contact your local county elections office to determine the required steps to ensure your registration is processed.
As for how the state is correcting the 200,000-voter application glitch.
The Texas Secretary of State’s office and the Department of Public Safety (DPS) have a verified verification pipeline specifically for this issue.
The Secretary of State’s office has confirmed all registrations will be backdated to the exact date the voter completed their original DPS online transaction. As long as that date is before the October 5, 2026, deadline, the registration will be considered legally valid and on time. State officials insist that every legitimate vote will eventually be counted, but the true test of that promise will unfold at the ballot box this November.
Rita Cook is a world traveler and writer/editor who specializes in writing on travel, auto, crime and politics. A correspondent for Texas Metro News, she has published 11 books and has also produced low-budget films.
