ASSOCIATED PRESS
Signs which will be posted at Harris County polling sites are lined up at election headquarters Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Harris County election officials are processing more than 75,000 additional voter registrations after a revelation that the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) failed to provide hundreds of thousands of voter records to counties across Texas.
The Texas Secretary of State notified Harris County officials on Tuesday of 108,000 backlogged voter registration records that were never provided to the office due to the technical error, according to a statement provided to Houston Public Media on Friday.
DPS failed to send the applications that were originally submitted by voters through an online driver’s license portal, Votebeat first reported. The unprocessed registration records were provided to counties Tuesday evening.
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After removing thousands of duplicated records, the Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector’s office started processing around 75,000 registrations this week. 2,000 of those records required additional review, according to the statement.
“This situation has caused confusion for the public and has created serious operational challenges during an already busy period for our office,” Samantha Kealoha, chief of staff of the tax assessor-collector’s office, said. “Our team is working diligently and will process these unexpected records before early voting begins on October 19th, while continuing to meet our other critical voter registration responsibilities.”
The Secretary of State’s office met with county leaders across Texas earlier this week about the error. State officials discovered the problem last week, when DPS sent a large number of voter registrations dating back to October.
“Our priority is to ensure that eligible voters who submitted their registration information on time are not disadvantaged by delays outside of their control,” Kealoha said.
The Harris County Clerk’s Office on Thursday did not return an email seeking comment about whether the error is expected to affect the midterm election in Harris County.
The deadline to register to vote in the November elections is Oct. 5. Early voting is slated to start on Oct. 19. Harris County voters can check their registration status online.
Alicia Pierce, a spokesperson for the Secretary of State, said in an email that the backlog shouldn’t affect voters’ registration status. A voter who registered through DPS online but doesn’t appear to be on the rolls can still cast a provisional ballot, she said.
In a statement Friday afternoon, Texas Democratic Party Executive Director Terri Burke said state officials should provide additional resources to county election offices to assist in processing the records.
“In a state where only 61% of registered voters cast ballots in the 2024 general election, every legitimate voter should have confidence that the registration system will work when they use it,” Burke said.