Allen residents who registered to vote through the Texas Department of Public Safety's online portal may not appear on the rolls. A software error left more than 40,000 Collin County voter registrations unprocessed for nearly a year.
The problem, first reported by Votebeat, traces to October 2025, when a third-party vendor updated the software DPS uses to handle registrations submitted through its online driver's license portal. Records that should have been forwarded to county election offices never arrived.
The deadline to register is Monday, Oct. 5.
DPS and the Texas Secretary of State's office said the error was resolved Sept. 13, Wylie News reported. But the backlogged records only recently reached county offices, leaving Collin County Elections
Administrator Kaleb Breaux and his staff to sort through the pile with the Nov. 3 general election weeks away.
Breaux said he is confident every eligible Collin County voter will be able to cast a ballot in the Nov. 3 election. His office had already added staff before the backlog arrived, and he told the Dallas Morning News his team will make "whatever time necessary to review" the records.
County officials plan to finish processing before early voting begins Monday, Oct. 19.
Allen, one of Collin County's largest cities, sits squarely in the affected area. Collin County had more than 750,000 registered voters as of the November 2024 election, according to county records.
No breakdown of how many of the 40,000 backlogged records belong to Allen addresses has been released.
Statewide, officials in seven counties confirmed receiving a combined 178,000-plus backlogged records, Votebeat reported Thursday, Sept. 24. State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, told Votebeat the Secretary of State's office should have caught the error sooner. County officials across Texas were working to clear the backlog, he said, in "bipartisan unanimity."
Breaux said updated records for eligible voters can be pushed through the check-in pollbooks even after the voting period has begun. Voters whose registrations are still missing on Election Day can cast a provisional ballot, and the county reviews every provisional ballot to determine whether it should be counted.
The Secretary of State's office said applications submitted through DPS with a transaction date before the Oct. 5 deadline will be valid for the Nov. 3 election, according to the Dallas Morning News. The state also said it was prepared to distribute grants to counties to offset extra processing costs, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
How to check your registration: Visit VoteTexas.gov and click "Am I Registered?" or contact the Collin County Elections office at (972) 547-1990.
The office is at 2010 Redbud Blvd., Suite 102, McKinney, and is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Early voting runs Oct. 19 through Oct. 30.
