1.2M Texas voters face questions about their home address
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More than 1.2 million Texas voters have been flagged as possibly no longer living at the address listed on their registration, potentially facing an extra step when they head to the polls this fall.
Why it matters: Voters on the so-called suspense list remain registered and can still vote, but the designation means election officials have questions about whether their registered address is current.
Driving the news: Roughly 6.6% of Texas' 18.7 million registered voters are currently on the suspense list, the Dallas Morning News first reported.
- A voter is placed on the list when a county registrar has reason to believe the voter's registered address is outdated, often because a voter registration card was returned as undeliverable.
What they're saying: Texas has used the process for years to keep voter rolls updated, secretary of state spokesperson Alicia Pierce tells Axios.
- "Voters on the suspense list remain registered, but they may need to confirm their address information," Pierce says. Voters then would sign a statement of residence before voting.
The other side: Voting rights advocates say the process can nevertheless create additional hurdles for eligible voters.
- "The registration status of over 1 million potential Texas voters has been placed under suspicion by Texas election officials, potentially interfering with their ability to vote this fall — and the vast majority probably have no idea," Chris Mosser of progressive advocacy group Progress Texas wrote last month.
- "This means extra friction at the ballot box, as there are administrative obstacles that are triggered for a voter in suspense."
By the numbers: Travis County numbers have fluctuated from 8% in January to 16% in September, according to Whitney Sklar with the Travis County tax assessor-collector and voter registrar.
- If the voter remains on the list for two federal election cycles, their registration is canceled from the voter rolls. That cancellation process won't happen until December — after the election — according to Sklar.
- "The mass cancellation will result in a decrease in the number of voters in suspense at the end of this year," Sklar says.
- Travis County currently has around 935,000 registered voters.
The intrigue: "Everybody went to great pains to assure me my vote counted," says Austin resident Madeline Maxwell, who learned she was on the suspense list after she was asked to sign a residency affidavit when she voted in early May.
- She tells Axios she has lived in the same house just north of the University of Texas campus since the early 1980s. She said county voting officials later said a printing problem with mailed-out voter certificates caused many to be returned. (She said that as of July she was no longer on the suspense list.)
Zoom in: In neighboring Hays County, the percentage of voters on the suspense list has held steady in recent years, at just under 1.5% for 2022, 2024 and 2026, according to Hays County elections administrator Jennifer Doinoff.
- Williamson County currently has approximately 63,000 registered voters on the suspense list, representing about 13% of its voters. "This is a normal and expected percentage for our county," county spokesperson Connie Odom tells Axios.
The bottom line: Texans can check their registration status and update their address at VoteTexas.gov before the Oct. 5 deadline for the November election.