Election officials in Texas scrambled to process more than half a million voter registrations before early voting starts Monday after a technical error caused a backlog, according to a lawsuit filed against state officials last week.
The backlog affected at least 593,000 registrations, voting rights groups say in the suit, attributing the number to reporting from the Dallas Morning News. The groups say they are suing the state to understand how the backlog happened and ensure that legally mandated procedures are followed moving forward.
“Plaintiffs are now turning to the Court because they fear that without judicial enforcement … the underlying voter registration delays, which has already harmed voters, will continue to harm voters in elections to come,” says the lawsuit, filed in Bexar County, Texas.
Texas residents who renew their driver’s license or update their address online must simultaneously be offered the chance to register to vote or update their voter registration, under a 2021 settlement between voting rights groups and the state. While the option to register has consistently been offered, the lawsuit says that what Texas officials described as a “programming error” led to many residents who registered to vote online not being included in voter registration files.
The League of Women Voters of Texas and Move Texas Civic Fund are suing Texas Secretary of State Robert Howden and Freeman F. Martin, director of the Department of Public Safety.
The Department of Public Safety said it would not comment on ongoing litigation. Howden’s office said that it would not comment on the lawsuit but that counties have “worked diligently” to clear the backlog.
“We don’t know of any counties with pending applications,” Alicia Pierce, a spokesperson for Howden, said in an emailed statement. “Our office will continue to support counties including issuing grants to cover the costs of overtime and hiring temporary works.”
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