Nearly 1.8 million registered Texans are now listed on the state's voter suspense list, including about 155,000 people registered in Dallas County, according to November figures from the Texas Secretary of State. Being on the list does not cancel a registration, and those voters can still cast a ballot in the Nov. 3 election.
What the numbers show
The state counts 1,763,730 suspense voters out of 19,041,684 registrations, a little over 9%. In the March figures, the total was 1,228,918, or roughly 6.6% of the rolls, so the list has grown by more than 530,000 names since spring.
In Dallas County, 155,013 of 1,493,955 registered voters carry suspense status, about one in 10. The March count for the county was 129,015. Neighboring counties show the same pattern: Tarrant County lists 103,585 suspense voters, Denton County 73,785 and Collin County 64,402.
What suspense means
Suspense status signals that the county voter registrar is unsure where a voter lives, according to VoteTexas.gov, the Secretary of State's voter information site. It usually follows a piece of election mail or a jury summons coming back as undeliverable.
Registration certificates are mailed every two years and are not forwarded, so a voter who moved without updating an address is likely to end up on the list.
The deadline to change an address for this election was Oct. 5, so the status cannot be cleared before Nov. 3. Under state rules, a voter who stays on suspense through two federal elections without voting or confirming an address is dropped from the rolls.
