Lubbock Co. Elections Office processing backlog of 7,500+ applications after DPS error; says it will not affect ability to vote

The DPS glitch affected its online driver's license portal, meaning applications and updates submitted there never made it to elections offices across the state, according to a report from Votebeat and the Texas Tribune. Lubbock County Elections Administrator Troy Havard said his office noticed "sporadic applications" trickling in before the scale of the problem became clear. Once DPS fixed the issue earlier this month, the backlog hit Lubbock all at once.

Havard's staff now has to process thousands of delayed applications by hand. That work matters for anyone who updated a driver's license and assumed their voter registration updated with it, especially with early voting for the November general election starting Oct. 19.

For regular people here, the message from the elections office is simple. This will not keep you from voting. Havard is telling residents the backlog is a processing headache on his end, not a reason to worry about being turned away at the polls. Anyone unsure whether their registration went through still has time before early voting opens to check with the county.

Lubbock County found out about the statewide backlog the same way voters did, from a news report.