Voting rights groups sue Texas over hundreds of thousands of unprocessed voter registrations

Left · 2The League of Women Voters of Texas and MOVE Texas Civic Fund are suing the state of Texas. They say more than 500,000 voter registration applications submitted through the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) web portal were never processed. 1 2 Left · 1The suit was filed last week in Bexar County's 224th District Court. It asks a state judge to enforce a 2021 settlement requiring Texas to provide a reliable way to register to vote through the DPS online driver's license portal. 1 Left · 2The lawsuit says that since at least October 2025 the defendants have breached the settlement by failing to maintain procedures for simultaneous online voter registration with driver's license renewal or change-of-address transactions. 1 2

Left · 2Reports differ on the size of the backlog. Raw Story, carrying a Votebeat and Texas Tribune report, cites at least 500,000 records dating to October 2025. The Guardian cites almost 600,000, quoting the lawsuit as saying DPS failed to send that many registrations to the Secretary of State for distribution to county registrars. 1 2 Left · 1According to Votebeat and the Texas Tribune, DPS and the Secretary of State's office last month sent county election officials the backlog of registration records and updates, which had been delayed by a software update error in the DPS portal. Election officials also said problems with the Secretary of State's voter registration system, TEAM, made the backlog harder to resolve. 1 Left · 1The Guardian reports the lawsuit alleges that between October 2025 and February 2026, people who answered "yes" when asked if they wanted to register were given receipts confirming their choice, but their registration information was never recorded. 2

Left · 2The suit names Texas Secretary of State Robert Howden and DPS director Freeman F Martin. It asks the court to order both agencies to maintain a working registration process, produce records of registration failures, and show proof of compliance within a month. 2 1 Left · 1The 2021 settlement ended earlier litigation. A 2016 suit over the lack of online registration through DPS won a federal ruling in 2018, but an appeals court overturned it in 2019 for lack of standing. After a second suit in 2020, a federal judge ordered Texas to offer registration through the portal, and the state settled in 2021, agreeing to maintain the process permanently. The plaintiffs cite a settlement provision allowing a new suit if systemic limitations cause simultaneous registration to fail. 1 Left · 1Karla Maradiaga of the Texas Civil Rights Project, which represents the plaintiffs, said the state "is in denial about issues with the DPS system" and has refused to be transparent about the delays. DPS and the Secretary of State's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and they are expected to file responses. A judge will then decide whether the failures breach the settlement. 1

Left · 2The timing matters because early voting opens on Monday and the midterm election is on 3 November. The lawsuit says some voters still face registration problems, and it warns that counties must scramble to process last-minute registrations. 1 2 Left · 1The Guardian places the dispute within a closely watched Texas US Senate race between Ken Paxton, the state attorney general chosen by Donald Trump, and Democrat James Talarico. It also reports that Senator Alex Padilla of California, ranking member of the Senate rules committee, wrote last month to Governor Greg Abbott and Howden demanding an explanation of how the failure occurred and how many registrations were affected. 2