Texas sued after a glitch delays nearly 600,000 voter registrations

Voting rights groups sued Texas officials after a software glitch left nearly 600,000 driver-license voter registrations and updates unprocessed for months. The League of Women Voters of Texas and MOVE Texas Civic Fund filed the case in Bexar County as counties raced to clear the backlog before early voting opens Monday.

The suit names Secretary of State Robert Howden and Department of Public Safety Director Freeman F. Martin. Plaintiffs say a programming error meant many Texans who registered or updated their voter file while renewing a license online never landed on county rolls even though the registration option appeared on screen.

How the backlog grew

Under a 2021 settlement Texas must offer voter registration whenever someone renews a license or changes an address online. Groups say the option stayed on the form but the resulting applications sat in a backlog that grew past half a million. Reporting put the figure at about 593,000 applications and updates.

State officials have described the problem as a programming error. Counties worked overtime and hired temporary staff with state grants to process the pile before early voting. Howden's office said it does not know of any counties that still have pending applications from the backlog.

Why the groups still sued

The plaintiffs say they turned to court because they fear the same delay could hit future elections without a judicial order enforcing the settlement's procedures. They want the court to require reliable processing and clearer reporting when online driver-license registrations fail to move.

The Department of Public Safety declined to comment on pending litigation. Alicia Pierce a spokesperson for Howden said the office will keep supporting counties including grants for overtime and temporary workers. Early voting in Texas begins Monday so any eligible voter whose application was stuck in the glitch should now appear on the rolls if counties finished the cleanup.

National voting groups are watching the case because many states use motor-voter systems that sync license offices with election rolls. A glitch that stalls hundreds of thousands of forms this close to Election Day raises pressure on states to prove those pipelines work under deadline.