DPS says the registration backlog is fixed. The counties' own count went from 178,100 to more than 200,000.

The Texas Department of Public Safety has told the governor’s office that the voter registration transmission failure is fully resolved. Two days after seven counties had confirmed 178,100 delayed records, Votebeat put the statewide count of unprocessed applications and updates at more than 200,000.

Why it matters

The deadline to register in Texas is October 5, nine days out. Early in person voting starts October 19. Harris County holds about one in seven registrations in the state.

Resolved at the state agency is not the same thing as processed at the county. The pipe can be fixed while the queue keeps growing, and only the queue decides whether a name is on the roll a precinct judge reads on November 3.

By the numbers

More than 200,000. Unprocessed applications and updates statewide, per Votebeat, September 26.
178,100. The total seven counties had confirmed as of September 24, per Votebeat, as reported here September 25. The count has risen every time anyone has asked.
45,000. Bexar County, per ABC13, September 24.
About 40,000. Dallas County on September 23, per Chris McGinn of the Texas Association of County Elections Officials, quoted by FOX 26. Votebeat put Dallas at 68,000 two days later.
More than 2,200. Bastrop County, per Votebeat.
October 2025. When a third party vendor’s software update broke transmission, per DPS. That is eleven months.
Zero. Statewide totals published by DPS or the Secretary of State. Every number above was counted by a county.
October 5, registration deadline. October 19, early voting opens. November 3, election day.

What the coverage buried

The money. Votebeat reports that the Secretary of State’s office has offered counties grants to cover the cost of working through the backlog, and gave no amount, no source of funds and no eligibility rule.

That is the state offering to pay counties to clean up a state vendor’s error, announced without a dollar figure. Every story this week led with the count. None of the four read here printed a price, and county election offices are staffed with local property tax money in the meantime.

The other side

The state’s position is better than it sounds. The Secretary of State says a backlogged application takes effect on the date it was submitted at DPS, not the date a county finally keys it in, and that an affected voter can cast a provisional ballot. DPS says it has been forwarding everything it received. If all of that holds, nobody loses a vote.

The answer is that a provisional ballot is counted only after review, and it moves the burden to the voter standing at the table. County officials in several counties dispute the claim that DPS sent everything. And “fully resolved” describes the transmission, not the 200,000 records already sitting in county queues nine days before the deadline.

What to watch

October 5. The registration deadline. An affected voter can fill out a paper application and walk it to the county voter registration office, which does not override an existing record.
October 19. Early voting opens. Any county still working a backlog on that date is working it while people vote.
Whether Harris County publishes its own figure, and whether the Secretary of State ever publishes a statewide one.
What the Secretary of State’s grants are worth, where the money comes from, and which counties qualify.

Bottom line

A state contractor broke a registration pipeline in October 2025 and nobody noticed for eleven months. The state now calls it fixed and has published no number. Every figure the public has came from a county that stopped to count, and the total has gone up every day this week. Harris County voters should check the roll themselves rather than take anyone’s word that it is handled.

Sources

Editorial