If a voter’s eligibility is uncertain, they can still cast what’s called a provisional ballot. Here’s how they qualify — and how officials ultimately decide whether they’re counted.Complete sentence summary goes here.
Natalia Contreras
Natalia Contreras covers election administration and voting access for Votebeat in partnership with The Texas Tribune. She has covered a range of topics as a community journalist including local government, public safety, immigration and social issues. Natalia previously reported for the Austin American-Statesman, focusing on impacts of government policies on communities of color. Natalia previously worked at the Indianapolis Star, where she helped launch the first Spanish-language newsletter, and at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. She was born in Tampico, Tamaulipas in Mexico and grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas. She is based in Corpus Christi.
Posted in
State Government
Texas discovers more backlogged voter registration records days before early voting begins
Local election officials must now process thousands of voter address updates before early voting starts Monday.
Posted in
2026 Texas Elections
Local Texas election officials clear voter registration backlog caused by state error
More than 500,000 voter applications were held up by an error in a Department of Public Safety software update.
Posted in
2026 Texas Elections
Texas sued for failing to process more than 500,000 voter registrations
Voting rights groups are asking a judge to enforce a 2021 settlement aimed at providing reliable online registration through DPS.
Posted in
State Government
Texas’ glitchy voter registration system makes it harder to clear backlog, election officials say
Frustrated officials say “unacceptable” technology glitches with Texas’ TEAM system are impeding work to resolve a backlog of hundreds of thousands of records.
Posted in
State Government
Texas DPS’ voter registration problems were flagged months before notice went out to local election officials
County elections administrators have received at least 500,000 applications that need to be processed before Monday’s registration deadline.
Posted in
2026 Texas Elections
Delayed Texas voter applications highlight how difficult it is to register in the state, experts say
Texas is among eight states that don’t have universal online voter registration. A DPS snafu created a backlog of at least 200,000 applications this week.
Posted in
2026 Texas Elections
Key GOP lawmaker says state should have caught error that delayed at least 178,000 Texas voter registrations
Meanwhile, Gov. Greg Abbott, who appoints the state’s top election official and is locked in a tight race in November, hasn’t commented on the error.
Posted in
2026 Texas Elections
After Texas DPS neglected tens of thousands of voter applications, Democrats demand an investigation
The number of unprocessed applications continues to grow. Texas Democrats, locked in tight races in November, want Gov. Greg Abbott to probe the failure.
Posted in
2026 Texas Elections
Texas DPS failed to send voter registration applications to county election officials
It’s not known how many applications have been unprocessed. Counties will receive a backlogged surge less than two weeks before the Oct. 5 deadline to register for the Nov. 3 election.
