Oct. 5th is the deadline: Check your voter registration, then Round Up Five

If you plan to vote in the Nov. 3 midterm election and aren’t registered, the clock is running out.

Oct. 5, is the deadline to register to vote in Texas.

And this year, election officials and voting rights advocates are urging Texans to do more than assume everything is in order. Check your registration. Check your address. And then check on somebody else.

Or, as the Defender Network’s Round Up Five campaign puts it: Make sure you’re ready, then round up five family members, friends, neighbors, or co-workers, and make sure they’re ready, too.

“The deadline to register to vote in the November general election is Oct. 5,” Texas Secretary of State Robert S. Howden said. “If you are qualified to vote but have not yet registered, or if you have moved since you last voted, now is the time to act.”

The reminder comes amid a voter registration problem affecting counties across Texas.

DPS backlog puts new focus on checking registration

At least 200,000 voter registration applications and updates were caught in a statewide backlog after the Texas Department of Public Safety failed to transmit records submitted through its online driver’s license portal to county voter registrars.

Some of the records date back to October 2025.

DPS has said a system issue caused incomplete records not to be transmitted and that the problem has been resolved. But the error left county election offices scrambling to review a flood of records just weeks before voting begins.

The problem is particularly significant because Texas is one of only eight states without universal online voter registration. Texans can conduct certain driver’s license or state ID transactions through DPS and register or update their voter registration online, but Texas does not offer universal online registration.

“We live in a system that has been designed to make things harder for voters,” Sarah Chen, senior supervising attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project, told Votebeat. “We don’t have online voter registration, except for this teeny little carveout, and because of the teeny little carveout, now we have these technical glitches resulting in this backlog.”

For voters, the takeaway is simple: Don’t assume. Check.

Harris County processing thousands of records

The impact has been especially large in Harris County.

Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar Annette Ramirez said the county received about 108,000 records dating back to October 2025. After duplicates were removed, more than 75,000 remained, with about 11,000 requiring manual review.

“We have never seen it on this level in this large volume of records,” Ramirez said.

Additional staff have been assigned to work through the backlog, and Ramirez said the county expects the records to be reviewed before early voting begins Oct. 19.

“We do not anticipate having any issues getting all of these reviewed in time for that October 19th deadline,” Ramirez said.

State officials have also said voters affected by the DPS problem have protections. If someone registered through DPS by the deadline but does not appear on the voter rolls, the voter can cast a provisional ballot. Election officials can then verify the DPS transaction, and the ballot can be counted if the voter was properly registered by the deadline.

Plan. Check. Vote.

Harris County officials are also pushing a “Plan, Check, and Vote” message as Election Day approaches.

Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth said one of the most important things voters can do now is verify that their registration information is accurate.

“I think one of the biggest of all is making sure that you’re registered and your address and your information is up to date,” Hudspeth said, “because if you’re not registered or your information isn’t up to date, then it can impact you at the ballot box.”

That includes voters who have been registered for years.

More than 319,000 Harris County voter registrations were listed as “in suspense” in late September. Suspense status does not mean a voter has automatically been removed from the rolls or cannot vote. It generally indicates that election officials need to confirm the voter’s address.

Voters who have moved, changed their name, or haven’t checked their registration recently should verify their information now.

What you need to do today

To register in Texas, you must be a U.S. citizen, a resident of the county where you are registering, and at least 18 years old by Election Day.

Voters can check their registration status through VoteTexas.gov or their county voter registrar.

If you’re not registered, today is the deadline. A mailed voter registration application must be postmarked by Oct. 5. The Texas Secretary of State recommends taking the application to a U.S. Postal Service retail counter and requesting a manual postmark to ensure the date is recorded correctly.

And once you’ve checked yourself, the Defender is asking you to Round Up Five.

Text five people. Call five relatives. Check on the young person who just turned 18, the cousin who recently moved, the neighbor who hasn’t voted in a while, or the friend who keeps saying they’ll get around to checking.

Ask one question: Are you registered, and is your information correct?

Today is the last day to fix it before the Nov. 3 election.

After today, the Defender’s Round Up Five campaign moves to its next phase: Round Up Five to Go Vote.

Early voting begins Oct. 19 and continues through Oct. 30. Election Day is Nov. 3.

Key dates

Oct. 5: Last day to register to vote
Oct. 19: Early voting begins
Oct. 23: Deadline for election officials to receive applications for ballot by mail
Oct. 30: Early voting ends
Nov. 3: Election Day

Voters can check their registration status, find voter registration information, and get additional election information at VoteTexas.gov. Harris County voters can also check their information through the Harris County voter registrar and the Harris County Clerk’s Elections Department.