By Gary Borders
The deadline to register to vote in the Nov. 3 general election is Monday, October 5. Early voting starts October 19 and runs through October 30, according to the Texas secretary of state’s office.
The last day for an application to vote by mail must be received by Friday, October 23. Voters can visit votetexas.gov to confirm they are registered to vote, see what is on the ballot where they live, and get other election-related information. That site is maintained by the Texas secretary of state. Meanwhile, The Texas Tribune reported that an unknown number of voter registration applications were delayed because of an error by the Texas Department of Public Safety. The agency failed to forward the applications, submitted online through its driver’s license portal, to county voter registrars.
Texas Democrats have called on Gov. Greg Abbott to investigate the problem.
With the October 5 deadline approaching, the delayed registrations from DPS could add to processing backlogs at affected counties. A spokesperson for the secretary of state’s office said affected voters can still have their ballots counted as long as they submitted their registration before October 5.
The DPS portal accounted for about 6 million voter registrations from 2020 to 2024. Texas has more than 18 million registered voters.
