Error leads to backlog of tens of thousands of voter registration applications in Texas

Texas officials sent tens of thousands of delayed voter registration applications to county election officials this week after discovering an error, sparking a scramble to process them weeks out from the midterms.

The Texas secretary of state’s office told election officials last week that a problem with the Department of Public Safety’s system had been uncovered: Certain incomplete voter registration applications that were missing some information were not sent on to election officials, potentially leaving Texans unregistered or with out-of-date voter files. The nonprofit news outlet Votebeat was the first to report the problem.

State officials started transmitting the records on Tuesday. It’s unclear how many voters were affected, but large counties have reported tens of thousands of registration applications and updates that election officials must process in the less than a month before early voting begins on Oct. 19. And more applications are sure to pour in ahead of the Oct. 5 deadline to register to vote in Texas.

The state’s fourth-most populous county, Bexar, received more than 45,000 voter registration forms from DPS, and the fifth-most populous, Travis County, received more than 35,000.

“While that number may seem high, the Elections team is already hard at work reviewing…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business