Texas state agencies are facing intense scrutiny after a software update by vendor Deloitte caused a massive backlog of 500,000 voter registration records, which were only sent to county officials in late September 2026. Despite warnings from lawmakers in March and voting rights groups in July, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Secretary of State's Office failed to resolve the portal errors sooner. Local election administrators in counties like Tarrant and Dallas are now scrambling to process these records before the October 5 registration deadline and the November 3 midterm election.
County processing of backlogged records
- ▪Dallas County processed its backlog of nearly 70,000 voter registration records, while Tarrant County election officials still had 14,000 records to review as of October 1, 2026.
- ▪The Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Secretary of State's Office sent at least 500,000 backlogged voter registration records to local county officials in late September 2026.
- ▪County election administrators are scrambling to process the delayed voter registration records just weeks before the November 3, 2026 midterm election.
Software update and testing failures
- ▪The Texas Department of Public Safety stated that the voter registration backlog was caused by an October 2025 software update by vendor Deloitte that omitted three pieces of data from daily files.
- ▪The Texas Secretary of State's Office confirmed it tested its TEAM voter registration system with the Texas Department of Public Safety portal before July 2025, but neither agency confirmed testing before the October 2025 update.
- ▪Software engineering and election administration experts stated that the Texas state agencies should have tested system updates together and developed automated error alerts to prevent the registration backlog.
Previous warnings and system issues
- ▪The Texas Department of Public Safety acknowledged in March 2026 that a programming change by the Department of Information Resources and Deloitte prevented the processing of 992 voter registration applications between December 2025 and February 2026.
- ▪The Texas Civil Rights Project and the League of Women Voters warned Texas state agencies in July 2026 about ongoing web portal failures, which the agencies dismissed as minor or legally compliant.
Upcoming election deadlines
- ▪Texas early voting for the midterm election begins on October 19, 2026, and the deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot is October 23, 2026.
- ▪The deadline for Texas voters to register or update their voter registration for the November 3, 2026 election is Monday, October 5, 2026.
Voters on the suspense list
- ▪Texas voters on the suspense list are still registered and can vote, but they may need to complete a Statement of Residence or cast a provisional ballot at the polls.
- ▪More than 1.2 million registered Texas voters were on the state's voter registration suspense list in September 2026 because county officials could not confirm their current addresses.
Debatable claims
- ▪Deloitte bears primary responsibility for the Texas voter registration backlog
- ▪The Texas Secretary of State's Office bears responsibility for the voter registration backlog
- ▪Texas state agencies ignored clear warning signs of the voter registration system's failures
- ▪Texas's multi-agency portal for voter registration is inherently unreliable
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