Voting rights activists hold up signs in front of the US Supreme Court during a press conference to encourage voter turnout in Washington, DC, US, October 14, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
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Voting rights groups are suing the state of Texas after more than 500,000 voter registration applications were submitted through the Texas Department of Public Safety’s web portal but never processed.
The groups are asking a state district judge to enforce a 2021 settlement agreement that required Texas to provide a reliable way for people to register to vote through DPS’ online driver's license portal.
In 2016, Texas voters and voting rights groups sued the state over its lack of online voter registration. They argued it was a violation of the National Voter Registration Act that voters could not register online while updating their address, driver's license, or state ID through DPS. A federal judge ruled in their favor in 2018, but an appeals court overturned the ruling in 2019 because the plaintiffs lacked standing.
Voters and voting rights groups sued again in 2020. This time, a federal judge ordered Texas to offer voters the option to register to vote through DPS’ online portal when updating their driver’s license or state ID. In 2021, the state settled the lawsuit, agreeing to permanently maintain the process.
Now, the new lawsuit argues that the recent failures of voter registration systems run by DPS and the Texas Secretary of State's Office have prevented the state from meeting that obligation.
DPS and the secretary of state's office last month sent county election officials a backlog of hundreds of thousands of voter registration records and updates delayed by a software update error with the DPS web portal. There were at least 500,000 records dating back to October 2025. Election officials also said issues with the secretary of state's voter registration system, known as TEAM, have made the backlog harder to resolve during a critical time.
The lawsuit says some voters are still facing problems with their registrations ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm election.
The lawsuit, filed last week in Bexar County's 224th District Court, is asking a judge to order both DPS and the Texas Secretary of State’s Office to maintain a functioning registration process, produce records documenting registration failures, and show proof of their compliance to the court within a month.
“Since at least October 2025, Defendants have breached and continue to breach the contract by failing to maintain the procedures that ensure simultaneous online voter registration with driver license renewal or change of address transactions,” the lawsuit says.
They argue that a provision of the 2021 settlement says that the state could be sued again if “data, methodological, or other systemic limitations cause the simultaneous registration procedures outlined herein to fail to permit simultaneous voter registration.”
The suit was filed by the League of Women Voters of Texas and MOVE Texas Civic Fund, a nonprofit organization focused on engaging young Texans and underrepresented communities. Both organizations were also plaintiffs in the 2021 settlement agreement.
“The 2021 settlement agreement paved the way for millions of Texans to register to vote online with just the click of a box,” said Karla Maradiaga of the Texas Civil Rights Project, which is representing the plaintiffs, in a statement. “Now, before a critical midterm election, the state is in denial about issues with the DPS system despite knowing voters have already been impacted, and has refused to be transparent with Texans about why these delays happened and what they will do to remedy this unacceptable breach.”
DPS and the secretary of state’s office are expected to file their responses to the plaintiff’s allegations. A judge will decide whether the registration failures constitute a breach of the state's 2021 settlement agreement to maintain a reliable voter registration system through DPS’s web portal.
DPS and secretary of state officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Read more Votebeat coverage of Texas’ 2026 failure to process voter registration applications:
Disclosure: The League of Women Voters of Texas has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune within the past five years. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in our journalism. Find a complete list of them and more information about our financial and disclosure policies here.
Natalia Contreras covers election administration and voting access for Votebeat in partnership with the Texas Tribune. Natalia is based in Corpus Christi. Contact her at ncontreras@votebeat.org.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.