Hundreds of thousands of Texas voter registrations caught in a state software glitch have been processed, state officials confirmed Thursday, Oct. 15. Early voting begins Monday, Oct. 19.
Alicia Pierce, spokesperson for the Texas Secretary of State, said the office is not aware of any county still holding pending applications, as first reported by the Associated Press. The announcement means League City voters who registered or updated their information through the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) website should now appear on Galveston County rolls.
Galveston County election officials have not publicly commented on the county's share of the backlog. Statewide, the total number of affected applications has not been disclosed, but the count reached the hundreds of thousands.
The backlog traced to a third-party vendor's software update in October 2025, according to KPRC 2. The update cut off parts of some voter registration records submitted through DPS's online driver's license services. That left the Secretary of State's office with incomplete information it could not send to county voter registrars.
DPS said it discovered the problem in late August and worked with the Secretary of State's office and the vendor to fix the software Sept. 13. The state confirmed it received corrected files Sept. 18, according to KPRC 2. Counties then had to review and process the delayed records individually.
Harris County alone received more than 75,000 delayed records. Harris County Tax Assessor and Voter Registrar Annette Ramirez said her office finished its backlog earlier in October.
"With our size, that was a big win for our county," Ramirez told the AP.
Election offices across Texas hired temporary workers to handle the surge. The Secretary of State's office offered grant funding to help counties cover overtime and additional personnel costs, according to KPRC 2.
Pierce said the effective date for any voter registration will be the date of the original DPS transaction, not the date the county processed it. Voters who completed their DPS transaction on or before Oct. 5, the registration deadline, will be registered in time for the Nov. 3 election, USA TODAY reported.
Voters who registered through DPS but still do not appear on the rolls can cast a provisional ballot. Election officials have an established method to verify the DPS transaction, and if confirmed, the vote will be counted, Pierce said.
The League of Women Voters of Texas and MOVE Texas Civic Fund filed a lawsuit in Bexar County on Oct. 9, naming Secretary of State Robert Howden and DPS Director Freeman Martin as defendants. The suit seeks a court order to prevent future registration delays, according to USA TODAY.
League City voters can check their registration status at VoteTexas.gov. Early voting runs Monday, Oct. 19 through Friday, Oct. 30. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
