Less than a month before early voting begins, Dallas County elections officials are sorting through 68,104 voter registrations that were filed through Texas’ online drivers license portal since October 2025 but never transmitted to the county, a spokesperson confirmed.
In Collin County, officials received more than 40,000 backlogged files this week, said Elections Administrator Kaleb Breaux.
While the technical debacle originating at the Texas Department of Public Safety is landing on the shoulders of counties across the state before the midterms, local officials say they plan to rectify the problem before the first day of early voting Oct. 19.
“Dallas County Elections is committed to ensuring every eligible voter registration record is processed accurately and timely,” spokesperson Nic Solorzano said.
Officials from DPS and the Texas Secretary of State’s office have yet to explain exactly how the errors occurred for nearly a year without detection.
Click here to read more on this report from our partners at The Dallas Morning News.
State officials say affected registrations will still be processed in time for the Nov. 3 election.
Election officials said it’s due to an issue with the Texas Department of Public Safety and the online process many Texans use to register to vote when updating their driver’s license information.
The Texas Secretary of State sent a mass email to statewide election officials on Tuesday detailing the issue.
According to the notice, the DPS failed to send some voter registration records from its online portal to counties for review because the information was “incomplete.”
The notice said the Texas Secretary of State’s Office has worked with the DPS to resolve the problem, and the affected records will now be transmitted to their counties.
It’s unknown how many voters were affected or what information may have been missing from the records.
Millions of Texans use the DPS portal to register to vote when renewing their driver’s license or updating their address.
The Texas Association of County Election Officials said it is working to understand the scope of the backlog, but it appears large North Texas counties may have received tens of thousands of applications.
In response to questions from the Secretary of State’s Office, a spokesperson provided the following information about what voters need to know about the protections in place to protect their vote:
These registrations have been sent to counties in time for the Nov. 3 election.
The effective date of the voter registration will be the day of the DPS transaction. If that transaction is on or before Oct. 5, the voter registration will be in time for the Nov. 3 election, even if it is processed later.
A voter who registered through DPS online services but does not appear on the rolls can cast a provisional ballot. Election officials have an established method with DPS to check the transaction. If that voter did register, the provisional vote will be counted.
Local election officials told NBC 5 they encourage voters to check their registration status before the upcoming Oct. 5 deadline to make sure their information is correct.
You can visit VoteTexas.gov to check your voter registration online or contact your county election’s office.
If you have not registered to vote, you can print an online form and mail it to your local election’s office or visit in-person and fill out a form on-site by October 5th.