Secretary of State Carlos Cascos announced that just over 15.1 million Texans are registered to vote for the general election, an increase of a little over 85K from his previous announcement. This includes nearly 1.7 million “suspense voters.” These are voters whose address is known to be incorrect (because the voter’s registration card was returned as undeliverable) and have not updated that address with the voter registrar of their home county. The deadline to correct the address for a voter’s registration has passed for this election.

Suspense voters are able to vote, but they may not be able to vote a full ballot, and they may not be able to vote at the polling place they choose. If a voter lives in the same county as his or her voter registration but resides at a different address, then the voter must vote in their old precinct. If a voter lives in a different county than his or her voter registration, then the voter may only cast a “limited ballot” which includes only races that are common to the two precincts. Typically, this means statewide races and some federal, legislative and judicial district races. No county or municipal races are included on a limited ballot.

Suspense voters are removed from the rolls if they do not vote any time before two even-year general elections have passed since they were placed on the suspense list. After the November 2014 general election, at least 680K suspense voters were dropped from the rolls.

Since November 2012, the state has added more than 1.6 million Texans to the non-suspense voter rolls, an increase of 13.75%. Fewer than 11.8 million non-suspense voters were on the rolls in 2012. Today, just over 13.4 million non-suspense voters are on the rolls. Hidalgo Co. leads the state with a 25% increase in the number of non-suspense voter registrations since 2012.

Fastest Growing Non-suspense Voter Rolls, 2012-2016

25.14% – Hidalgo Co.
23.98% – Hays Co.
22.58% – Williamson Co.
22.37% – Travis Co.
22.18% – Brazos Co.
20.88% – Fort Bend Co.
20.82% – Rockwall Co.
20.80% – Caldwell Co.
20.60% – Comal Co.
20.30% – Denton Co.
20.28% – Collin Co.
20.01% – Montgomery Co.
19.74% – Galveston Co.
19.37% – Parker Co.
18.49% ­– El Paso Co.

Fastest Declining Non-suspense Voter Rolls, 2012-2016

-20.71% – Brooks Co.
-15.66% – Terrell Co.
-15.50% – Frio Co.
-13.10% – Throckmorton Co.
-10.89% – Foard Co.
-10.03% – Kenedy Co.
-9.77% – San Saba Co.
-8.91% – Cottle Co.
-8.89% – Falls Co.
-5.97% – Haskell Co.
-5.68% – Upton Co.
-5.58% – Baylor Co.
-5.54% – Donley Co.
-5.49% – Stonewall Co.
-5.45% – Bailey Co.

Forty-six counties have experienced a decrease in their non-suspense voter registrations. Combined, those 46 counties lost a net 8,232 voters.

In terms of raw numbers of non-suspense voters, the largest increases were predictably in the state’s five most populous counties: Harris (+253K), Bexar (+141K), Travis (+117K), Tarrant (+105K) and Dallas (+85K). These five counties accounted for more than 43% of the net increase in non-suspense registered voters since 2012.

A total of 27 counties have at least 10K more non-suspense registered voters today than they had in 2012. Dallas Co., with a 8.3% increase in non-suspense registered voters, was the slowest growing county of the 27 when measured as a percent increase over 2012.