About 48,000 Montgomery County voters are on the state's voter suspense list and need to confirm their addresses by Oct. 5 or face extra paperwork at the polls for the Nov. 3 election.

That date is also the last day to register to vote for the general election, which includes four at-large seats on The Woodlands Township Board of Directors.

Statewide, roughly 1.2 million Texans landed on suspense lists after counties failed to verify their addresses by mail, Houston Public Media reported Thursday, Sept. 3. That is about 6.6% of the state's more than 18 million registered voters, according to an AP analysis of Secretary of State data.

Montgomery County had 464,410 registered voters as of 2025, according to county elections data. The 48,000 figure comes from the Houston Chronicle.

Registration is not canceled. But voters who do not update their address before the deadline will have to complete a statement of residence form when they check in at the polls, according to Houston Public Media.

Voters end up on the list for three main reasons, Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Annette Ramirez told Houston Public Media: the U.S. Postal Service returned a registration card as undeliverable, a jury summons came back as undeliverable, or the county received a change-of-address notice from the USPS.

"When we do a mass mail out of 2.7 million voter registration cards, we anticipate receiving over 100,000 of those back," Ramirez said. "So, this isn't unusual."

Alicia Pierce, spokesperson for the Texas Secretary of State, said the suspense list dates back to the National Voter Registration Act of 1995 and called it "a tool to protect voters." Pierce said voters can check their status at votetexas.gov using the My Voter Portal.

Voters who miss the deadline still have options. Those who moved within the same county can vote early or on Election Day by filling out a statement of residence, according to Votebeat. Voters who moved to a new county can cast a limited ballot during early voting only.

David Froomkin, an assistant professor of law at the University of Houston Law Center, warned that inaction carries longer-term risk. Froomkin told Houston Public Media that a voter who does not correct the record "will be purged in two years," because the state imposes that legal obligation on the county registrar. The Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector's Office said a voter is removed from the rolls only after not voting through two federal election cycles, or four years.

No on-record statement from Montgomery County Elections Administrator Suzie Harvey or Tax Assessor-Collector Tammy McRae about the local suspense list appeared in public records as of publication.

Early voting in Montgomery County runs Oct. 19 through Oct. 30, according to the county's election calendar. Election Day is Nov. 3.