Texas election officials are scrambling to process a backlog of at least 178,000 voter registration applications and updates after a Department of Public Safety system error prevented records submitted through the agency's online driver's license portal from reaching county election offices.

The records date back as far as October 2025 and include both new voter registrations and changes to existing registrations, such as address updates. State officials have not determined how many of the records represent new voters or whether the problem caused any voters to miss the opportunity to cast a ballot in the March primary.

The problem was discovered last week after county election officials noticed a surge of older registration records appearing in the state's voter registration system. State officials said the affected transactions produced incomplete records that prevented them from being transmitted to county registrars.

DPS has since said the system issue has been resolved and that it worked with the Texas Secretary of State's Office to identify the incomplete records and restore missing information. The state began sending the delayed records to counties Tuesday, leaving local election offices to review them during one of the busiest periods of the election calendar.

The size of the backlog has continued to grow as counties report receiving the delayed records. Dallas County received more than 68,000, Collin County about 40,000, and Travis County roughly 32,000. Williamson, Lubbock, Hays and Cameron counties have also reported thousands of additional records. Officials in seven counties had confirmed receiving more than 178,000 records as of Thursday.

Chris McGinn, executive director of the Texas Association of County Election Officials, said large counties are likely to face the greatest workload because they process more registrations. He warned that counties will have to devote additional staff hours and potentially pay significant overtime to work through the backlog.

Some records may also be duplicates. A voter updating a driver's license could have selected the voter registration option even though the person was already registered, meaning county officials still have to examine the record to determine whether it represents a new registration or an update.

Republican state Sen. Paul Bettencourt of Houston said the state should have detected the problem earlier. Bettencourt said the Secretary of State's Office oversees the system through which DPS sends registration records to counties and should have noticed that the files were not being received properly. He also raised broader concerns about the state's TEAM voter registration system, which underwent a major overhaul last year and has faced functionality complaints from county election officials.

The backlog comes as Texas approaches the Oct. 5 voter registration deadline, with early voting scheduled to begin Oct. 19. State officials have said voters who registered through DPS but do not appear on the voter rolls can cast a provisional ballot. Election officials can check DPS records to determine whether the voter completed a qualifying registration before the deadline, in which case the provisional ballot can be counted.

The error has already drawn political criticism. Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, who is challenging Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate, called the situation unacceptable and urged Texans to verify their registration status. Other Texas Democrats have called for an investigation into how the backlog occurred.

Gov. Greg Abbott's office has directed questions about the problem to DPS and the Secretary of State's Office. The exact cause of the system failure, the total number of affected voters, and the number of delayed applications that were actually new registrations remain under investigation.