Ahead of the November midterm elections, more than 1.2 million Texas voters are once again on the state’s voter “suspense” list. In Houston, roughly 300,000 voters have been flagged. This is not the first time this has happened in Texas. In 2024, more than 2 million Texas voters were placed in “suspense,” out of 17 million registered voters.
Being on this list does not mean that a voter has been purged or is ineligible to vote.
Instead, it just means county officials have reason to believe the voter may no longer live at the address on their registration, according to the Texas Secretary of State’s office.
That can happen when a voter registration certificate, jury summons, mailing, or other official correspondence is returned as undeliverable.
But voters who remain “in suspense” can eventually be removed. Under Texas procedures, a voter who fails to update or confirm an address and remains on the suspense list through two elections for state or county offices can have their registration canceled.
At the polls, a suspense voter can still vote after completing a statement of residence confirming their address.
While the current suspense list does not constitute a racial purge, concerns persist about how address-based voter maintenance can interact with existing disparities in voting access and impact Black Houstonians.
There is another way a voter can be placed on the suspense list, warned voting rights activist Pamiel Gaskin. In Texas, private individuals can challenge another person’s eligibility to vote through sworn statements based on personal knowledge.
While Gaskin says the voter purge system itself “does not inherently discriminate against Black and brown voters,” voter residency challenges disproportionately occur in minority communities, she added. Gaskin described groups canvassing Houston neighborhoods, including Third Ward, Fifth Ward, and Acres Homes, and challenging registrations.
“These challenges do happen a lot in minority communities,” Gaskin said. “Sometimes they don’t even have to have a reason to do a challenge. They just do it, but the registrar’s office has to act upon the challenge.”
A major election-year issue
Texas reported more than 1.2 million registrations in suspense. The state has now entered the 90-day period before the Nov. 3 federal election during which federal law generally prohibits systematic voter-roll removals.
Texas election officials were reminded that the moratorium began Aug. 5, although removals for reasons including death and a voter’s own request can continue.
The suspense-list controversy comes as Texas separately scrutinizes voter citizenship.
In 2025, the Secretary of State’s office compared more than 18 million voter records against the federal SAVE immigration database and identified 2,724 people as potential noncitizens. But county election officials subsequently discovered that some of those flagged had already provided citizenship documentation to the Texas Department of Public Safety. Texas officials are now cross-checking the records with DPS.
The series of events has drawn scrutiny.
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s expanded use of SAVE for voter-eligibility checks, citing instances in Texas where U.S. citizens were flagged. The ruling does not necessarily end investigations already underway into voters previously identified through the database.
Houston voters face an outsized impact
The numbers make Houston one of the epicenters of the issue. Harris County had more than 198,000 voters in suspense out of about 2.7 million registered voters as of March, according to the Texas Secretary of State. Add that neighboring Montgomery, Fort Bend, and Brazoria counties, and roughly 300,000 Houston-area voters are in suspense heading toward November.
That matters in a county already struggling with uneven voter participation.
Despite having the largest number of registered voters and votes cast in Texas during the vote in the November 2024 general election, only 58.8% of Harris County’s registered voters turned out to vote, according to a county analysis.
Moreover, voter turnout in the county is unevenly distributed. Fewer than 50% of registered voters turn out in 418 precincts in East and Central Harris County. Voters in suspense can still cast a ballot after verifying their address at the polling place, Gaskin said. She advises Texans to regularly check their registration status and respond promptly to correspondence from election officials.
Texas voters can check their registration through the state’s Am I Registered? portal.
They can search using one of three methods, including their:
- Voter Unique Identifier, or VUID, found on their voter registration certificate
- Texas driver’s license number, if it was provided when they registered
- First and last name
They can also contact the voter registrar’s office in the county of residence.
The registration deadline for the Nov. 3 election is Oct. 5. Early voting runs from Oct. 19 through Oct. 30.