Daily Briefing: Thursday, October 15, 2026

County election officials have cleared a backlog of more than 500,000 voter registration records that a software update error in the Texas Department of Public Safety’s online driver’s license portal had held up since October 2025, Votebeat and The Texas Tribune reported Wednesday. “Texas counties have worked diligently and have cleared the backlog,” said Alicia Pierce, a spokesperson for the Texas secretary of state’s office. Pierce said a voter who registered through the portal but does not appear on the rolls can cast a provisional ballot. The backlog is the subject of a lawsuit voting rights groups filed this month to enforce a 2021 settlement.

Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Gerber Products Company and Nestle USA under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, alleging the companies told parents Gerber baby food was safe and rigorously tested while Gerber’s own tests found dangerous levels of arsenic and lead, the attorney general’s office announced Wednesday. From 2017 through 2019, Gerber used 67 batches of rice flour with more than nine times the arsenic the federal government allows in bottled water, the office said. The suit follows the office’s earlier settlement with baby food maker Plum.

Elections Alberta opened 310 polling stations Tuesday for five days of advance voting before Monday’s referendum, which asks whether the province should remain in Canada or hold a second, binding vote on leaving, The Canadian Press reported. About 658,000 Albertans requested mail-in ballots, and voters had sent back about 391,000 of them as of Monday evening, ahead of a Friday 5 p.m. deadline, agency spokesperson Michelle Gurney said.

The Scottish National Party opens its 92nd annual conference Thursday at P&J Live in Aberdeen, running through Saturday, according to the party. A Survation poll commissioned by the party, which questioned 2,039 people in Scotland between September and October, found 52 percent would vote Yes in a second independence referendum and 48 percent No once undecided voters were excluded, The National reported.

Tonight at 6 p.m., a Llano County team from the Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM) holds a meet and greet at The Falls in Llano. Three TNM information tables follow on Saturday: on the Llano Courthouse Square at 8 a.m., at a park in Bullard in Cherokee County at 9 a.m., and at the Texas Gun & Knife Show in Abilene in Taylor County at 10 a.m., according to the TNM calendar. The Wood County team meets the public at Jalapeno Tree in Mineola at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, October 20.