Collin County, Texas

Twelve U.S. House seats covering the Dallas-Fort Worth area are on the Nov. 3 midterm ballot, with early voting running Oct. 19-30. Most races feature Republican incumbents—Keith Self, Pat Fallon, Lance Gooden, Jake Ellzey, Craig Goldman, Ronny Jackson, Beth Van Duyne and Roger Williams—facing Democratic challengers, plus a Libertarian in District 26. Three open seats stand out: District 30, vacated by Jasmine Crockett after her Senate run; and Districts 32 and 33, left open by Julie Johnson and Marc Veasey, respectively, after mid-decade redistricting reshaped them from Democratic-leaning to Republican-favored territory. In District 33, Colin Allred faces Patrick David Gillespie. Results are expected after 7 p.m. on Election Day.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed suit against Gerber Products Company and parent Nestlé USA, alleging the companies deceived parents by marketing baby food as safe and rigorously tested while internal testing allegedly found elevated levels of arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury. The complaint, filed in Collin County under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, cites Gerber's own 2017-2019 data claiming 67 batches of rice flour contained more than nine times the federal arsenic limit for bottled water, with carrots and sweet potatoes also exceeding limits for cadmium and lead.

Paxton's office says Gerber issued no recall or warning and kept marketing claims of rigorous quality checks despite the findings, criticizing the company's use of a QR code rather than clear labeling to disclose results. Gerber disputes the allegations, saying its products meet FDA heavy-metal standards and undergo testing for more than 500 toxins. Paxton, a Trump-backed Senate candidate, filed the suit weeks before facing Democrat James Talarico in the midterm election.

A software error at a third-party vendor used by the Texas Department of Public Safety caused thousands of online voter registration updates, submitted through DPS transactions like driver's license renewals, to be transmitted incomplete since October 2025. The Texas Secretary of State's office says the issue was resolved and corrected files were confirmed received on September 18, with counties now racing to process the backlog before the November election's October 5 registration deadline.

Harris County alone reported receiving roughly 108,000 delayed records, with Collin, Travis, Brazoria, Hays, Gregg, and Cameron counties each reporting thousands more. Officials say all affected registrations will be backdated to when they were originally submitted to DPS, and voters who registered through the portal but don't appear on rolls can cast provisional ballots that will count once verified. The scope of Texans affected statewide remains unclear, but election officials say they are working to ensure the error does not disenfranchise voters ahead of the upcoming election.

Texas county election officials continue processing a backlog of voter registration records after a technical error at the Texas Department of Public Safety kept them from being forwarded to counties, with the state's Oct. 5 registration deadline for the Nov. 3 election approaching. DPS said some online records, submitted when Texans updated driver's licenses or addresses and opted to update voter registration, were "incomplete" and not fully transmitted; the issue has since been resolved and backfilled data sent to counties.

A Nexstar survey of just six counties—Collin, Travis, Brazoria, Hays, Gregg, and Cameron—found more than 102,000 delayed records dating back to October 2024, suggesting the statewide total is far larger. The state has not disclosed the full scope or cause. Officials say affected registrations will be backdated to the original DPS transaction date and were sent to counties in time for the election. Voters who registered via DPS but don't appear on rolls can cast a provisional ballot, which counts once verified. Officials urge Texans to confirm registration status with local registrars before the deadline.

Harris County's population grew by only about 1% over the past year, according to Rice University political science professor Mark Jones, who says the modest growth is driven almost entirely by natural births and international migration. Without immigration, he says, the county's population would already be shrinking.

Harris County Commissioners Court voted 3-1 to approve a $3.1 billion budget that raises the combined property tax rate about 7.9%, to a cap of 67 cents per $100 of taxable value, effective October 1, 2026. The county estimates the average homeowner will pay roughly $193 more per year. Commissioners Adrian Garcia, Rodney Ellis and Lesley Briones supported the hike, blaming state and federal policy under President Trump and Governor Abbott for shifting about $250 million in costs onto the county, including unfunded mandates and Medicaid non-expansion. Commissioner Tom Ramsey voted against it; Judge Lina Hidalgo abstained, warning the increase won't fix long-term finances. Jones warns slower growth means the tax burden falls on fewer residents, risking further migration to Fort Bend and Montgomery counties. Southwest Houston businesses report declining sales tied to immigration enforcement fears.

Texas election officials are urging voters to confirm their registration status ahead of the Oct. 5 deadline for the Nov. 3 midterm election. Status can be checked at VoteTexas.gov. Texas does not allow standalone online registration; forms must be printed, signed, and mailed, or submitted in person at a county election office or through a driver's license renewal.

More than 1.2 million Texas voters remain on the "suspense list," meaning counties have information suggesting they no longer live at their registered address; voters on the list for two federal cycles (four years) are removed from the rolls. Affected voters can update records via Texas.gov using their Voter Unique Identifier, though those who miss the deadline may still vote at their old precinct.

For mail-in voting, requests are due by Oct. 23, with eligibility limited to those absent from their county, ill or disabled, jailed but eligible, or 65 and older. Early voting runs Oct. 19–30, with Election Day on Nov. 3.

The Texas U.S. Senate contest between Republican incumbent Ken Paxton and Democratic state Rep. James Talarico has turned to recycled material from past campaigns, most notably a 2018 video showing Paxton pocketing a $1,000 Montblanc pen left behind at a Collin County courthouse security checkpoint. Paxton returned the pen once notified of the mix-up, and his campaign at the time called the episode a nonstory. The clip originally surfaced in an ad from Justin Nelson, Paxton's 2018 Democratic challenger, who narrowly lost that race.

Talarico's campaign has now revived the footage and its "won't steal your pen" tagline in a new ad, adding a fresh endorsement from Joe Joplin, the pen's original owner. The ad also follows renewed attention to Paxton's past securities fraud indictment, resolved without conviction, and his 2023 impeachment by the Texas House, which ended in acquittal by the state Senate. The race is considered one of the most closely watched Senate contests in the country this cycle.