أخطأ خطأ في الحاسوب causing backlog of nearly 600,000 voter registration applications in Texas, resulting from a glitch in software run by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Affected applicants who checked 'yes' to register to vote between December 2025 and February 2026, as their data was never recorded despite receiving confirmation receipts. County election officials scrambled to process the applications before early voting began on Monday.
The backlog raised national concerns, particularly due to Texas hosting one of the year’s most competitive U.S. Senate races. Senator Alex Padilla, a Democrat from California and ranking member of the Senate Rules Committee, issued a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott and Secretary of State Robert Howden demanding an explanation.
By Wednesday, county officials reported the backlog had mostly been cleared, though voting advocates warned the incident might discourage voter turnout. The lawsuit, filed in Bexar County by voting rights groups including the League of Women Voters Texas and Move Texas Civic Fund, named Secretary of State Robert Howden and Freeman F. Martin, director of the Department of Public Safety, as defendants.
Rochelle Garza, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project, emphasized the need for litigation to determine whether the error was intentional or accidental. Counties worked diligently to resolve the backlog, with some hiring additional staff and others working nights and weekends. Voters who believed they had registered but were not on the rolls could cast provisional ballots.
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