Early voting begins Monday in Texas with a record 19 million registered voters, even after a series of technology failures left counties processing thousands of delayed or corrected voter records just days before the election.
Figures released Friday by the Texas Secretary of State show 19,041,684 registered voters ahead of the November 3 election. That's an increase of 553,518, or about 3 percent, from last November.
“We’re heading into early voting feeling strong, but that’s because of the people and not the system,” Fernanda Maldonado, political director of MOVE Texas Civic Fund, told Newsweek Friday.
Texas, which has a population of around 32 million, has become a battleground state, despite not having elected a Democrat to a statewide office since 1994. Three-term Republican Governor Greg Abbott is in a tight race with Democratic challenger Gina Hinojosa, and there's a razor-thin margin in the Senate contest between Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Democratic challenger James Talarico.
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Counties Race to Process Voter Records
Harris County, where Houston is located, received about 1,400 records on October 15 associated with a glitch with updating records on Texas.gov, followed by two more batches the next day to bring the total to more than 2,400, county Tax Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar Annette Ramirez said in a statement to Newsweek.
The county processed all the records by Friday but asked the Secretary of State to confirm whether every affected Harris County record had been transmitted. It was still awaiting an answer at the time of the statement.
The county stressed that the Texas.gov problem was separate from the earlier DPS backlog.
The newer problem specifically affected people who were already registered and used Texas.gov to change a name or address. It should not be treated as 15,000 new voter-registration applications.
Initial estimates from the Texas Association of County Election Officials identified approximately 3,000 affected records in Bexar County, 1,100 in Travis County, 700 in Williamson County and 400 in Hays County.
Earlier Backlog Put Pressure on County Offices
The latest episode came on the heels of a 500,000-record backlog that officials discovered in September. A glitch prevented complete voter-registration records from being transmitted to county registrars.
The record electorate arrives after counties contended with two separate technology problems involving Texas voter records. An earlier error involving online transactions through the Texas Department of Public Safety delayed more than 500,000 voter-registration records and updates, some dating to October 2025.
Harris County said it received more than 75,000 records from that backlog beginning September 22. More than 50 staff members worked to review and process the records by October 3, just two days ahead of the state's registration deadline, according to the county. New applications among those records still required state verification, and voter files continued to be updated as those verifications were completed.
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The Secretary of State previously told Newsweek that the effective registration date would be the date of the qualifying DPS transaction. It said a voter whose transaction occurred on or before October 5 would be considered timely registered even if the application was processed later.
The agency also said voters who registered through DPS online services but do not appear on the rolls can cast provisional ballots. Election officials can verify the DPS transaction, and the ballot will be counted if officials confirm an eligible voter registered in time, according to the agency.
Maldonado said that local election officials and advocacy groups should not be responsible for compensating for what she described as a broken system. MOVE Texas Civic Fund, a non partisan not for profit voting rights advocacy group, plans to continue seeking changes through litigation and at the state Capitol, including full online voter registration, she said.
“County election officials have been working overtime to clear the backlogs, and voting rights advocates and civic organizations across the state have spent months preparing to protect the vote and make sure every voter knows their options,” Maldonado said. “We’ll be watching closely and ready to support and respond if voters run into problems.”
Registration Problems Prompt Lawsuit
The earlier failures have also resulted in litigation.
The League of Women Voters of Texas and MOVE Texas Civic Fund sued state officials in Bexar County on October 9, alleging that failures in the state’s voter-registration systems violated a 2021 settlement concerning registration through DPS’ online driver’s-license portal. The Texas Civil Rights Project filed the case on behalf of the groups.
Under the earlier settlement, Texas agreed to maintain a process allowing eligible voters to register or update their registrations while completing online driver’s-license or state-identification transactions. The new case asks a court to enforce that agreement and require safeguards against future failures. It does not seek monetary damages.
The lawsuit concerns the earlier DPS-related failures. It has not been established that the separate Texas.gov problem disclosed this week forms part of the plaintiffs’ claims.
What’s at Stake in Texas
The largest statewide contest is the U.S. Senate race between Paxton and Talarico, where most polls show a narrow lede for Talarico.
A Marist poll released last week showed Talarico leading Paxton 47 percent to 45 percent among likely voters. Among registered voters, Talarico held a four-point lead, which was down from six points a month earlier. The poll's margin of error for likely voters was plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
Abbott was ahead 49 percent to 45 percent. in the Marist poll. A ReconMR/Siena Research Institute poll of 617 likely voters, conducted October 5 to 8, had Abbott up by 1 point, 48 percent to 47 percent. A University of Massachusetts Lowell/YouGov poll of 850 likely voters from late September had Abbott ahead 48 percent to 44 percent.
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Early in-person voting in Texas starts Monday and runs through October 30. The deadline for mail-ballot applications to be received is October 23.