Harris County has worked through most of a 75,000-record voter registration backlog caused by a state software error, but about 11,000 records still need manual review. The registration deadline for the Nov. 3 election is Monday, Oct. 5.
Spring-area residents who registered or updated their information through the Texas Department of Public Safety's online portal should check their status before the deadline at VoteTexas.gov or HCTAX.NET, or call 713-274-VOTE (8683). Assistance is available in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese.
Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar Annette Ramirez told KPRC 2, which first reported the updated figures, on Tuesday, Sept. 29 that her office received about 108,000 records from DPS. Roughly 33,000 were duplicates, leaving more than 75,000 unique records to process. Those numbers represent records, not a confirmed count of individual voters affected.
"We have never seen it on this level in this large volume of records," Ramirez told KHOU.
Changes to existing registrations that could be processed immediately are active and up to date, according to Ramirez's office. New voter applications that cleared processing are awaiting state verification, which includes checking identification and assigning voter ID numbers.
The remaining 11,000 records include applications staff could not match to an existing voter or to the voter's information. Ramirez said her team expects to finish reviewing all affected records before early voting begins Oct. 19.
How the backlog happened
A third-party vendor that handles DPS's batch registration transactions updated its software in October 2025. The update cut off portions of records submitted through DPS's online driver's license services, leaving the Secretary of State's office with incomplete data it could not forward to counties.
DPS said it discovered the problem in late August and worked with the Secretary of State's office and the vendor to fix it Sept. 13. The state confirmed it received corrected files Sept. 18, according to CW39. Harris County began receiving the records Sept. 22.
The problem extended well beyond Harris County. Officials in seven Texas counties had confirmed receiving a combined 178,000-plus backlogged records as of Sept. 25, Houston Public Media and Votebeat reported. Montgomery County, which borders Harris County to the north and includes parts of the Spring area, confirmed receiving approximately 34,780 records, according to ABC13.
State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican who represents Senate District 7, said Sept. 25 that the Secretary of State's office should have noticed the missing files. He said the gap should have been detectable.
What voters should do
The Secretary of State's office told KPRC 2 that voters who submitted a qualifying DPS transaction on or before the deadline will be considered timely registered, even if the county processes the record later.
Karla Maradiaga, a voting rights attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, recommended that voters who still need to resolve a registration issue visit their county voter registrar's office and submit a paper form. She said voters had reported registration delays "of weeks and sometimes months" before counties received the backlog.
If a voter registered through DPS but does not appear on the rolls on Election Day, the Secretary of State's office said they can cast a provisional ballot. Ramirez said her office can contact DPS directly while a voter is at the polls to verify the registration and update the county system in real time.
Spring-area residents in Montgomery County should check their status at elections.mctx.org. Early voting runs Oct. 19 through Oct. 30.
