Voting rights groups say Texas had failed to send almost 600,000 online voter registrations to county registrars as of last month, which could affect voters in the midterms.
In a lawsuit filed in Texas state court against the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Secretary of State, the groups say counties “must now scramble to process this deluge of last-minute voter registrations ahead of the November 2026 election.”
The lawsuit also says that the hundreds of thousands of voters who are potentially affected “face the immediate injury of needing to take extra steps to vote because their voter registrations may not be updated before early voting for the 2026 general election.”
Early voting starts Oct. 19. DPS and the secretary of state’s office are legally required “to ensure that every eligible voter who submits a driver license application or renewal, or an update to his or her address with DPS not less than 30 days before an election, is registered to vote,” the lawsuit adds.
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The lawsuit claims that the secretary of state’s “recent attempts to overhaul the statewide Texas Election Administration Management system” have caused delays. Vote Beat first reported on the lawsuit.
The voting rights groups — MOVE Texas Civic Fund and the Texas League of Women Voters — are arguing that the error violates a previous settlement agreement.
Texas has only guaranteed that voters can register online since that settlement was reached in 2021. The lawsuit claims that the inability for Texas residents to register or change their registration after moving within the state is a violation of the settlement agreement that promised them the right to register by mail in the first place.
And, the lawsuit alleges that these issues have been reported since mid-2025.
The groups included the declaration of Margaret Altizer, a Texas resident who moved in June to a different voting precinct. After trying to update her address and get a new voter registration in August, Altizer found herself still registered at her old address six weeks later.
Altizer said she is left with the option of casting a provisional ballot or voting in her old precinct, giving her no say in who represents her in the Texas state House.
Voting rights groups are asking the court to require the state properly perform its duties, maintain records of voter registrations and document errors to the court within the month.
Despite denials from the Texas DPS and the secretary of state’s office, the massive backlog was revealed in September, when counties suddenly received thousands of files at once.
“Harris County and Dallas County received approximately 75,000 and 68,000 late records from DPS respectively. Because of this deluge of applications, [Secretary of State] has offered counties grant funding to offset the additional costs of processing the files,” the lawsuit says.
That left counties scrambling to catch up before Nov. 3. The Texas secretary of state did not respond to a request for comment. The Texas DPS said they will not discuss pending litigation.
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