Texas officials say an error involving the state Department of Public Safety (DPS) has left an unknown number of voter registration applications unprocessed, creating a scramble in the weeks before the November midterm elections and the October 5 registration deadline. Reports say applications submitted through DPS’s online driver’s license portal were not delivered to county election officials in time.
The secretary of state’s office says it discovered the problem only last week. Officials told media that applications are being delivered to counties starting overnight, though many registrations are reportedly incomplete and some details about what is missing are not being specified publicly. Depending on the scope, counties could face delays in processing registrations for up to two weeks after the deadline.
Multiple sources note the deadline implications. Texas election rules allow voters whose registrations are not processed to cast provisional ballots if they submitted their applications before the cutoff, with election officials able to verify whether the DPS transaction occurred. DPS previously testified that millions of Texans have used the DPS online service over recent years, underscoring the potential scale of the issue.
