SAN ANTONIO – Voters have just more than a week to register to vote if they want to cast a ballot in the Nov. 3 election.
Even if people think they’re registered, state officials are asking them to double-check.
This message comes after local county election boards received hundreds to tens of thousands of DPS voter registration applications that were backlogged, some dating back to October of last year.
>> How to make sure you’re registered to vote in the Nov. 3 election
Election offices across the region are rushing to process a backlog of voter registration applications after a “technological error” kept some submissions from the Texas Department of Public Safety from reaching local counties for much of the past year.
The issue affects people who registered to vote while renewing a driver’s license or changing their address through DPS.
Those applications are normally sent daily to county election offices for processing, but after DPS switched to a new system, counties said they stopped receiving the usual number of applications.
Kendall County elections administrator Staci Decker told KSAT her office noticed the drop and reported it to the state.
“What we normally got from DPS was about 40 applications a day,” Decker said. “Then that went down to under 20 applications a day.”
Decker said state officials acknowledged that multiple counties reported similar problems, but DPS said it had been sending all of the applications it received.
That changed Wednesday evening, when Kendall County and other election offices received hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of applications from DPS around 5 p.m.
Election officials in 10 surrounding counties said the sudden influx means staff will need to work extra hours, including possible weekend shifts, to process the applications before the Oct. 5 voter registration deadline.
The delayed applications are adding pressure on county offices during an already busy election season.
Local election workers now must review and enter the backlog while continuing to handle regular voter registration work.
Voters who recently registered through DPS and want to confirm their status before the November election can check their registration at VoteTexas.gov.
County election offices will continue processing the applications ahead of the Oct. 5 deadline.
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