Longtime Dallas immigration attorney and civic fixture Domingo Garcia says he nearly fell out of his chair when a county notice landed in his mailbox this month declaring his voter registration canceled because state records had him marked as dead. Garcia told reporters he cast a ballot in the March primary, has been registered since 1976 and has already submitted paperwork to fight the cancellation.
In an April 10 letter to Garcia, Dallas County Elections said his registration had been canceled under Texas Election Code Section 16.031(a), according to WFAA. The notice, signed by Dallas County elections official Paul Adams, reflected what Garcia says was a death match triggered by state-supplied records. Garcia says he has requested a formal hearing to dispute the cancellation.
How state law handles death matches
Texas law requires county registrars to cancel a voter’s registration when they receive specific official notices that the person is no longer eligible, including abstracts of death certificates or strong data matches, according to the Texas Secretary of State. The state classifies a “strong” match, such as a combination of the same last name, date of birth and full Social Security number, as grounds for automatic cancellation, while weaker matches trigger verification letters instead. The state’s rules also set deadlines for hearings and for restoring a registration when a voter contests being removed.
Garcia's response and next steps
Garcia went public with his frustration, joking that he was “not dead yet” and questioning how officials had concluded otherwise, as reported by D Magazine. He told local reporters he believes the mistake traces back to data provided by the state and says he wants county officials to explain whether anyone else was caught in the same situation. Garcia has submitted a written request for a hearing as he works to clear up his record.
What voters should know
Texans who get a cancellation notice are allowed to file a signed, written request for a hearing with their county voter registrar, and the registrar must set that hearing within ten days and reinstate the voter’s registration while the challenge is pending, according to guidance from the Texas Secretary of State. Many cancellations start with automated cross-checks against other government databases, but the secretary of state’s office says there are verification steps in place that are meant to prevent erroneous removals. Anyone who thinks they have been wrongly dropped from the rolls is urged to contact their county elections office immediately.
Why this matters
Local officials and voting-rights advocates say that high-profile errors like Garcia’s deepen public worries about how voter rolls are cleaned up, particularly as Texas tightens its data-matching rules and continues to debate how counties can run registration and purge programs, a trend tracked by reporting from The Texas Tribune. For Garcia, the next key moment will be his requested hearing, where the county will decide whether to correct the record and restore his registration.
