The Smith County Elections Office recently received over 7,900 backlogged voter registrations, a direct result of a system error within the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) driver’s license portal. This influx of records arrived less than four weeks before early voting is set to begin on Oct. 19 for the general election on Nov. 3.
The technical issue, first reported by Votebeat on Sept. 22, affected the online system Texans use to update their driver’s license credentials and, concurrently, register to vote. The error caused hundreds of thousands of voter records statewide, reportedly dating back to October 2025, to be classified as incomplete and subsequently not sent to the state’s 254 counties for processing.
Christina Adkins, the director of elections for The Texas Secretary of State Office, communicated the discovery of the issue to all Texas county elections and voter registration officials via email on Sept. 22. Adkins informed officials that DPS would commence processing the online files at 5 p.m. that evening. For counties that are not online and rely on third-party voter registration vendors, the process for receiving the records would take a longer duration.
Adkins noted that the Secretary of State's office has actively collaborated with DPS to resolve this issue and identify the affected records, which are now being transmitted to the counties. She also stated that ongoing efforts are in place with DPS to ensure that modifications made to their system do not impact the transmission of daily files moving forward.
In Smith County, Elections Administrator Michelle Allcon confirmed that the majority of the approximately 7,900 backlogged records received from DPS were automatically processed without complications. However, Allcon stated that approximately 2,600 records still require manual review by election staff. These staff members will work to verify addresses and confirm that the voters are located within Smith County.
Allcon outlined the Smith County Elections Administration's plan to complete the processing of all records by Oct. 5, which is the official deadline to register to vote. She clarified that even if the manual review process extends slightly beyond this date, it will not affect the registration date of those voters. As long as voters registered on or before Oct. 5, they will be eligible for the Nov. 3 election, provided their citizenship and identity are verified by the state.
Texas law does not permit online voter registration directly. However, since September 2020, eligible Texans have been able to renew their driver’s licenses and update their addresses through an online portal, which also facilitates voter registration.
Currently, the total number of voters affected statewide remains unknown, according to the Secretary of State Office’s statement. The Texas Association of County Election Officials is actively working to understand the reason and full scope of the backlog as the investigation into the system error continues.
