Overview
- Plaintiffs filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Bexar County asking a judge to order the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Secretary of State to maintain a working DPS registration process, produce records documenting the failures, and show proof of compliance within a month.
- Officials say more than 500,000 online registration applications were held up by a DPS web-portal software update that began omitting required data fields in October 2025 so many transactions were not sent to county election offices.
- The Secretary of State’s Office and county officials say corrected files were rebuilt and delivered in late September and that counties have cleared the DPS backlog, with registrations submitted through DPS before the Oct. 5 deadline keeping their original effective dates for the Nov. 3 election.
- Counties handled the surge unevenly: better-resourced jurisdictions used outside vendors to process tens of thousands quickly while many counties were slowed by limits in the statewide TEAM voter database and had to rely on overtime and temporary staff with state grants covering some costs.
- Advocates say the state has been nontransparent and that voters were left uncertain about their status, and the lawsuit could force court-ordered records, new oversight of the DPS vendor and systems, and clearer safeguards to prevent future failures.