Texas should have caught voter registration error

Key Points:

• A backlog of at least 178,000 voter registration applications from the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) has surfaced, with some records dating back over a year, causing counties to process a large volume of applications just weeks before the November midterm election.
• State Sen. Paul Bettencourt criticized both DPS for the initial failure and the Texas Secretary of State’s office for not detecting the issue earlier, emphasizing the need for improved operational oversight in election administration.
• The backlog includes both new voter registrations and updates to existing records, though officials have not clarified how many voters were affected or whether the error impacted voting in previous elections.
• The Texas Secretary of State’s office acknowledged the problem last week after counties flagged an unusual influx of older voter registration data, but has not provided details on the cause or resolution of the incomplete records issue.
• County election officials are working intensively to process the backlog, and bipartisan cooperation has been noted; meanwhile, concerns persist about ongoing functionality problems with the state’s voter registration system, TEAM, which was overhauled last year.