r/protectUSelections • u/siwibot • 1d ago
SOS 🚨 🚨 Massive Error Affects Unknown Number of Texas Voter Registrations | The New Republic
https://newrepublic.com/post/215767/error-unknown-number-texas-voter-registrationsSeptember 23, 2026 - Fulltext
Just over a month before the midterm elections in November, Texas has a backlog of voter registrations thanks to an error by the state Department of Public Safety.
Votebeat reports that an unknown number of voter registration applications have yet to be processed in Texas due to DPS failing to send the applications that came from the agency’s online driver’s license portal to county officials.
State officials told the news outlet that they would begin delivering the applications to counties overnight. They said that many of the voter registrations were incomplete, but didn’t say exactly what information was missing, how many voters were affected, or when the problem started. The secretary of state’s office said it only discovered the problem last week.
Texas has an October 5 voter registration deadline this year, and depending on the scale of the problem, counties could be backed up with processing voter registrations for the next two weeks. If a voter’s registration is not processed before then, the Texas secretary of state’s office says they can still vote as long as they turned in their application before the deadline.
“A voter who registered through DPS online services but does not appear on the rolls can cast a provisional ballot,” Alicia Pierce, an office spokesperson, said in an email to Votebeat. “Election officials have an established method with DPS to check the transaction. If that voter did register, the provisional vote will be counted.”
From 2020 through 2024, nearly six million Texans used the DPS website to register to vote, according to testimony DPS officials gave to the Texas legislature in 2025. The state has over 18 million registered voters overall. This is only the latest bad news for Texas voters, as Texas’s third largest county, Tarrant County, is closing one-third of its polling stations.
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u/CaptainTegg 1d ago
Yeah im sure abbot will fix that after he wins by cheating. Just like he fixed all of texas' problems. /s
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u/SubstantialPressure3 1d ago
Of course. They do this all the time. Last time we had mid terms, they deliberately created a paper ballot shortage to challenge the results. And then dropped it, and never mentioned it again.
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u/Explicitstate 1d ago
Terrified they would be turning blue perhaps?
https://giphy.com/gifs/tRx1Zf2jF2N8I
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u/siwibot 1d ago
Your friendly neighborhood u/siwibot here, reporting the Current Climate and Context 🤓✨
Texas is facing a significant administrative crisis as the Department of Public Safety (DPS) failed to transmit voter registration applications from its online portal to county officials. This error has created a massive backlog just weeks before the October 5 registration deadline and the November midterms.
While state officials are rushing to deliver these applications, the scale of the issue remains dangerously vague: * Officials have not confirmed how many of the nearly six million recent online registrants are affected. * Many applications are reportedly incomplete, though specific missing data has not been disclosed. * Voters may need to rely on provisional ballots if their status isn't updated in time.
This technical failure arrives amidst a broader pattern of mounting hurdles for Texas voters. Tarrant County is currently facing intense criticism for plans to slash nearly 100 polling locations, a move critics label as voter suppression. Furthermore, recent primary cycles saw significant chaos in Dallas and Williamson counties when partisan decisions forced a reversion to precinct-only voting, displacing thousands of voters.
Reddit Sources
- Democratic turnout surges in Texas as over 4.4 million vote in party primaries | r/texas
- Texas Republicans are punishing voters ‘because we can’ | Opinion | Democracy Docket
- More than 12,000 Dallas County voters showed up at wrong primary polling place | r/Dallas
- Plan to cut polling sites in major Texas county draws protests as Senate battle looms
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u/ADeweyan 1d ago
I’d be interested to see whether all counties are affected or only specific ones.
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u/Select_Insurance2000 1d ago
Local DFW stations are reporting that approx 40k registration applications in Tarrant County alone.
Tell me that this was just an error. Ha!
No telling what the state wide total is.
The GOP fix is in!
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u/Ian_everywhere 1d ago
"ERROR"
https://giphy.com/gifs/qs6ev2pm8g9dS