October 5 is final day to register to vote in Texas midterm elections

Who's involved

• Texas Department of Public Safetysent backlog of voter registration records to elections offices
• Celia IsraelTravis County Tax Assessor and former State Rep.
• Chris McGinnexecutive director of Texas Association of County Election Officials
• Alicia PierceSecretary of State spokesperson
• Hidalgo County Elections Departmentprocessed voter registration applications
• Travis County Tax Assessor's Officeprocessed voter registration forms

The facts

• Oct. 5, 2026 was the final day to register or update voter registration for the Nov. 3, 2026 election.^{1 2 3 4 5 6} Stated by 6 sources
• Texas Department of Public Safety sent a backlog of hundreds of thousands of voter registration records to elections offices about two weeks before the deadline.⁶
• Travis County Tax Assessor's Office kept its doors open until midnight on Oct. 5 for voter registration.⁶
• Hidalgo County Elections Department main office was open until 7 p.m. on Oct. 5 in Edinburg.³
• Travis County had about 8,000 backlog records remaining out of 32,000 originally received from DPS.⁶
• Texas is one of seven states that do not allow online voter registration.⁶
• Secretary of State's office issued grants to help elections offices cover costs of overtime and temporary workers.⁶

Who said what

These are statements and claims made by the people involved. They are reported, not verified.

• Celia Israel Online voter registration would reduce mistakes, cut down on time, and make the process more secure.⁶
• Chris McGinn Elections offices typically experience surge of voter registrations at deadline; this year was continuous for extra two weeks.⁶
• Celia Israel Travis County team will meet their deadline of Oct. 19, the first day of early voting.⁶