19 million Texans are registered to vote, breaking record

Texas voter registrations hit a record high of more than 19 million ahead of the pivotal midterm election on Nov. 3.

Registrations are up 2.2% from the last major general election in November 2024, and up 2% from primary elections in March, according to a Friday release from the Texas Secretary of State. The latest figures are also 7.7% higher than the last midterm elections in November 2022.

Fast-growing suburban counties saw some of the biggest growths since the last midterms, including Kaufman (27% more registered voters), Waller (23%), Ellis (21%) and Hays (21%).

Tarrant, which political watchers consider a swing county, had 2.6% fewer registered voters than four years ago. 

“Texas continues to see strong voter registration numbers, and we want every eligible Texan to be prepared to participate in the upcoming election,” Secretary of State Howden Robert Howden said in the news release.

Early voting starts Monday.

The jump comes amid a series of state and local actions that have threatened voter registrations statewide. Over the last month, officials have scrambled to resolve 500,000 voter applications left unprocessed due to a software error in the Texas Department of Public Safety web portal. The agency failed to send hundreds of thousands of applications to counties, leaving local officials to catch up only weeks before the start of early voting. That backlog has since been resolved, Texas officials said Wednesday.

On Thursday, county officials learned of a separate state error causing another several thousand backlogged voter registration records. The issue affects address updates made via Texas.gov between Sept. 1 and last week; election officials in four counties — Bexar, Travis, Williamson and Hays — have received additional records to process, according to the Texas Association of County Election Officials.

As local officials continue to process applications, registrations postmarked or submitted to DPS by Oct. 5 will be considered valid, and those voters can still cast a provisional ballot.

Earlier this year, the state also faced criticism over its efforts to purge its voter roll of noncitizens. Texas was one of the first states to turn over its roll to the federal government in January at the behest of the U.S. Department of Justice, which said the request is part of its efforts to enforce states’ maintenance of voter rolls.

A Department of Homeland Security tool used to screen for voter eligibility subsequently mistakenly flagged a number of eligible voters as potential noncitizens in counties across Texas. President Donald Trump has long claimed, without evidence, that millions of noncitizens are voting in American elections, a claim that the federal review of voter rolls has not supported.

The record high in voter registrations also comes after voter turnout rose in the March primary elections. Nearly a quarter of registered voters cast a ballot, an indication of heightened interest in this year’s high-stakes midterm election.