AUSTIN, Texas — More than a million Texas voters are listed as “suspense,” a designation that does not prevent them from voting but that advocates and some voters worry could discourage people from showing up at the polls.
Reese Sandoval, a UT Austin student, said she learned she was a suspense voter while casting her ballot in the May primary.
“I was really scared. I thought it was really serious,” Sandoval said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, am I gonna, like, go to jail or something?’”
Sandoval said she was allowed to vote and later learned the issue appeared to be related to her address.
“It seemed like it was pretty simple, like just, like, address change or something,” she said.
The latest statewide report lists more than 1.2 million Texas voters as suspense. Several UT students interviewed said they did not know what the label meant, and some initially assumed it meant a voter was about to lose eligibility.
“It’s like people who are, like, about to be taken off, like from voting,” UT student Labib Kibria said.
Erin Johnsen, another UT student, said she thought it meant “the government and, like, local government saying certain people can’t vote.”
Valerie DeBill, director of voter registration and turnout for the League of Women Voters Austin Area, said the wording can be intimidating.
“It absolutely will have a chilling effect on their desire and willingness to try,” DeBill said.
Kibria said, “I don’t know if I would if I was on the suspense list.”
Johnsen said, “I would be slightly discouraged, but I would try to figure it out anyways.”
“It sounds pretty bad, so I’d obviously be pretty concerned about it,” UT student Arya Batchala said.
Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar Celia Israel said being on the suspense list is not the same as being removed from the voter rolls.
“Suspense is an identifier. It’s not anybody who’s gonna take you off the voter roll,” Israel said.
Israel said the designation typically means the county has information that raises questions about whether a voter’s address is current, often after mail is returned. In many cases, the fix can be as simple as updating an address.
“I’ll go vote now if it’s just fixing my address, yeah,” Kibria said.
“That definitely makes it a little less scary,” UT student Sowmya Velayutham said.
In mid-September, about 150,000 Travis County voters were listed as suspense, roughly 16% of the county’s registered voters, according to the county registrar.
Israel said her office has been working to get the word out. “I have been doing so many interviews, but we’re trying to flood the zone with our media partners to make sure that people know about this deadline,” Israel said.
Johnsen said she had questions about how voters are notified and what steps they need to take.
“What’s the process like to get off of that and how are people even notified that they’re on this suspense list? I’m very curious,” she said.
According to the registrar, voters can start at VoteTexas.gov and pull up their voter record. If it says “suspense,” they can use their voter ID number to update their address online, or call or visit their county registrar.
The League of Women Voters Austin Area said the portal could do more to explain the suspense flag.
“It just says it. It doesn’t explain what that means to you. It doesn’t give you any indication of why that might be,” DeBill said.
For Sandoval, the solution was an address update.
“It was a pretty easy fix for me,” she said.
The deadline to register or update voter information is tonight. Travis County said its main tax office at 2433 Ridgepoint Drive will stay open until midnight.