{"id":457537,"date":"2026-10-06T01:54:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T01:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/457537\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T01:54:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T01:54:24","slug":"the-receipts-could-you-be-one-of-the-over-a-million-texans-on-the-voter-suspense-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/457537\/","title":{"rendered":"The Receipts: Could you be one of the over a million Texans on the voter “suspense” list?"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 More than a million Texas voters are listed as \u201csuspense,\u201d<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Reese Sandoval, a UT Austin student, said she learned she was a suspense voter while casting her ballot in the May primary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really scared. I thought it was really serious,\u201d Sandoval said. \u201cI was like, \u2018Oh my God, am I gonna, like, go to jail or something?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandoval said she was allowed to vote and later learned the issue appeared to be related to her address. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt seemed like it was pretty simple, like just, like, address change or something,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like people who are, like, about to be taken off, like from voting,\u201d UT student Labib Kibria said.<\/p>\n

Erin Johnsen, another UT student, said she thought it meant \u201cthe government and, like, local government saying certain people can\u2019t vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valerie DeBill, director of voter registration and turnout for the League of Women Voters Austin Area, said the wording can be intimidating.<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS COVERAGE | Could you be on Texas’ voter suspense list without knowing it? Here’s what to check<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt absolutely will have a chilling effect on their desire and willingness to try,\u201d DeBill said.<\/p>\n

Kibria said, \u201cI don\u2019t know if I would if I was on the suspense list.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnsen said, \u201cI would be slightly discouraged, but I would try to figure it out anyways.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sounds pretty bad, so I\u2019d obviously be pretty concerned about it,\u201d UT student Arya Batchala said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuspense is an identifier. It\u2019s not anybody who\u2019s gonna take you off the voter roll,\u201d Israel said.<\/p>\n

Israel said the designation typically means the county has information that raises questions about whether a voter\u2019s address is current, often after mail is returned. In many cases, the fix can be as simple as updating an address.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll go vote now if it\u2019s just fixing my address, yeah,\u201d Kibria said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat definitely makes it a little less scary,\u201d UT student Sowmya Velayutham said.<\/p>\n

In mid-September, about 150,000 Travis County voters were listed as suspense, roughly 16% of the county\u2019s registered voters, according to the county registrar.<\/p>\n

Israel said her office has been working to get the word out. \u201cI have been doing so many interviews, but we\u2019re trying to flood the zone with our media partners to make sure that people know about this deadline,\u201d Israel said.<\/p>\n

Johnsen said she had questions about how voters are notified and what steps they need to take.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the process like to get off of that and how are people even notified that they\u2019re on this suspense list? I\u2019m very curious,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

According to the registrar, voters can start at VoteTexas.gov and pull up their voter record. If it says \u201csuspense,\u201d they can use their voter ID number to update their address online, or call or visit their county registrar.<\/p>\n

The League of Women Voters Austin Area said the portal could do more to explain the suspense flag.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just says it. It doesn\u2019t explain what that means to you. It doesn\u2019t give you any indication of why that might be,\u201d DeBill said.<\/p>\n

For Sandoval, the solution was an address update.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a pretty easy fix for me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The deadline to register or update voter information<\/a> is tonight. Travis County said its main tax office at 2433 Ridgepoint Drive will stay open until midnight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 More than a million Texas voters are listed as \u201csuspense,\u201d a designation that does not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-457537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}