Texas’ backlog of voter registrations needs immediate fix, voting groups say in lawsuit

Pro-voting groups are asking a Texas court to force state officials to fix its online voter registration process after a backlog of nearly 600,000 applications was revealed just before the midterm elections.

The League of Women Voters of Texas and MOVE Texas Civic Fund sued the Texas Secretary of State and the Texas Department of Public Safety, as well as their top officials, last week in Bexar County.

The pro-voting groups allege the departments failed to properly process online voter registration records in violation of a 2021 settlement agreement that guarantees voters can register any time they renew or update their driver’s license online as required by the National Voter Registration Act.

In their complaint, the groups make clear they are not seeking any monetary damages but instead want a permanent injunction requiring the state to correctly process voter registrations going forward. 

“No damages can compensate Plaintiffs’ members and other voters for their delayed voter registrations causing disruptions to voting plans and creating barriers to voting via provisional ballots or being forced to vote an outdated ballot not reflecting current representatives,” they write.

Without a permanent injunction, the groups say “the risk of disenfranchisement for Texans increases exponentially.”

“Millions of eligible voters are relying on a system that is no longer working. This reliance may lead to voters not knowing they were not properly updated in the system until it is too late to register to vote and, in some cases, until they are already at the polls,” they add.

Election workers have been left scrambling due to the state’s registration errors, saying the backlog dates back all the way to October 2025. DPS attributed the issues to a software glitch due to a programming change from one of its third-party IT vendors and said it resolved the issue on Sept. 13.

The pro-voting groups say they first sent a letter in July seeking information on how the state was complying with the 2021 settlement agreement. They said both the Texas Secretary of State and Department of Public Safety “claimed full adherence to its terms.”

But then came reports in September, from counties saying they were suddenly inundated with delayed records. 

“Given this track record, Plaintiffs cannot take Defendants at their word that the underlying issues causing voter registration delays are resolved—and the Court should not either,” they write. 

They added they are “now turning to the Court because they fear that without judicial enforcement of the Stringer II Settlement Agreement, the underlying voter registration delays, which has already harmed voters, will continue to harm voters in elections to come.”