Voter holds up their sticker at the student center on Tuesday Feb 3, 2026, in Houston, Texas. | Raphael Fernandez/The Cougar
More than 1.2 million registered voters were listed on the Texas Secretary of State’s voter suspense list as of March 2026.
Students are concerned that being on the Texas voter suspense list might discourage their peers from voting in the upcoming November midterm elections.
Finance sophomore Sarah Anighoro, who leads the civic engagement project Ballots & Belonging, said that students on a voter suspense list may be less likely to participate in future elections if they do not know how to verify their registration.
“I’m concerned that if a student sees that their registration has been placed on this list, they may not know what to do next or be disheartened from voting, so my goal is to let people know that voter suspense lists don’t make students ineligible to vote and that their next steps can be as simple as going online and updating your address,” Anighoro said.
Election officials can determine who is and isn’t eligible to vote in a locale based on changes in state identification records, including address records or driver’s licenses.
If officials determine that a person is no longer living in a given geographic area, that person may be removed from that area’s active voter registration list, said political science professor Jonathan Williamson.
In Texas, officials place voters on the suspense list if they have reason to believe that their address is not the one that is listed on their registration records.
Anighoro recommends that students check their registration status before the Oct. 5 registration deadline.
After her freshman year, biotechnology sophomore Audrey Haper moved from Cougar Village I to the Quad. She believes that this change in address was why she got placed on the voter suspense list.
Haper said that she was frustrated that Texas does not proactively inform voters when they are placed on the suspense list.
“Even though registrars had my email and phone number on my registration form, I never received a notification that I was a suspended voter,” Haper said. “I was nervous because I desperately wanted to make sure I could vote in the upcoming midterm election.”
A misconception that some students have is that being on the suspense list means they cannot vote. However, a voter on the suspense list can still cast a regular ballot if they fill out a “Statement of Residence” at the polling place to confirm their current address.
There are also other solutions to getting off the suspense list, like re-registering to vote.
The Student Centers often have voter registration tables to guide students through the registration process. The Student Government Association’s Department of External Affairs also directs registration drives.
“I removed myself from the suspense list by resubmitting a form at the Student Government Association office,” Haper said.
Anighoro said that most student voters may neglect checking their registration status regularly. Unless students are actively checking it, many may not even know that they’ve been placed on the list.
“Voting is already something that can feel complicated for a lot of young people and first-time voters,” Anighoro said. “So the added confusion with all these suspensions might lead to some deciding that voting is too complicated or that they’re not eligible.”
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