A system failure at the Texas Department of Public Safety created a statewide backlog of voter registration records, some dating back as far as October 2025.

Harris County could have tens of thousands of backlogged records to process before the deadline to register for the Nov. 3 election, which is Monday, Oct. 5. Residents of Friendswood, Nassau Bay and Seabrook who registered or updated their information through the DPS online driver's license portal could be among those affected.

The DPS online portal has been a major registration channel since 2020. About 6 million Texans used it to register between 2020 and 2024, Houston Public Media and Votebeat reported. Applications caught in the backlog were submitted through that portal but never forwarded to county voter registrars, according to the outlet.

State officials said the online DPS transactions produced incomplete records, which prevented them from reaching counties. DPS has not said what information was missing, what caused the error or how many voters were affected.

County election officials first noticed a large influx of old DPS applications on their dashboards the week of Sept. 14, according to Chris McGinn, executive director of the Texas Association of County Election Officials. McGinn told KHOU 11 he believes Harris County could have tens of thousands of records to review and would not be surprised if the volume exceeded 100,000.

The exact count remains unknown.

That figure does not mean 100,000 voters were left unregistered. McGinn said historically about 30% to 40% of DPS voter registration applications processed by counties require no update because the voter's information is already accurate.

"This is really out of left field," McGinn told the Associated Press. "Knowing that this one element of (state) applications didn't come through, and we had no insight on it."

The Texas Secretary of State's Elections Division emailed county officials on Sept. 22 saying DPS had identified the problem and the state would begin transmitting the backlogged records that evening. Processing was expected to finish by the morning of Sept. 23.

DPS said in a statement that the system issue has been resolved and that it worked with the secretary of state's office to backfill incomplete records. DPS did not answer questions about the cause or scope of the problem, CBS News Texas reported.

The backlog is statewide. Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, received about 45,000 applications, the AP reported. The Texas Tribune and Votebeat reported that small counties received a few hundred applications while the most populous counties received tens of thousands.

County election offices have until early in-person voting begins Oct. 19 to finish processing the late-arriving applications, according to the AP.

Alicia Pierce, a spokesperson for the secretary of state's office, said voters who registered through DPS online services but do not appear on the rolls can cast a provisional ballot. She said election officials have a method to verify the DPS transaction, and if the voter did register, the provisional vote will be counted.

Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar Annette Ramirez urged all county voters on Sept. 22 to verify their registration status before the deadline, saying she wanted no hurdles at the polls when voters show up to cast their ballots, according to KPRC 2. That call came before the DPS backlog was publicly reported.

Voters can check their registration at VoteTexas.gov or contact the Harris County voter registrar at hctax.net. The registration deadline is Monday, Oct. 5.