SALEM, Ore. — After acknowledging earlier this month that several hundred noncitizens were mistakenly registered to vote by the Oregon DMV through the state's "Motor Voter" program, state officials widened the scope of the problem Monday and outlined steps to prevent it from happening in the future.
In a joint statement, the DMV and the Oregon Secretary of State's office said that another 953 voter registrations have been inactivated on top of the 306 originally flagged, for a total of 1,259.
Of those registrations, the Oregon DMV found that 10 had a voting history. However, one of those people was later confirmed to be an eligible voter, reducing the number to nine.
It's not entirely clear whether the 1,259 inactivated all represent noncitizens, with Oregon officials saying only that they were "incorrectly identified" as eligible to vote at the DMV. Some, like the individual with a voting history who was then determined to be eligible, may just need to re-register with the proper documentation.
By default, none of the inactivated voters will receive a ballot for the 2024 election.
“Because of this quick response, I can assure Oregonians that the 2024 General Election will not be affected by this error in any way,” said Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade. “Noncitizen voting remains exceedingly rare in Oregon and around the country. We can continue to be proud that automatic voter registration is just one of the ways we ensure eligible Oregonians have the opportunity to exercise their right to vote.”
In a separate statement released shortly after the update, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek directed the DMV to take "proactive steps" to ensure the problem isn't repeated in the future.
The governor ordered that the DMV provide updated training for all relevant staff, compile an after-action report within two weeks to find out how the errors occurred and document what they've done to correct the issue, do a "full-scale data integrity review" overseen by a panel of third-party data experts by the end of the year, and establish a data quality control calendar in coordination with the secretary of state.
“The integrity of election systems is the cornerstone of a functioning democracy, and any error that can undermine our voting system must be taken seriously and addressed immediately,” Kotek said. “Following round-the-clock corrective action on the part of Oregon DMV to address the known errors and ensure they will not impact the 2024 general election, I am now directing the agency to go above and beyond to ensure errors like this will not happen again.”
Republicans in the Oregon Legislature quickly signaled that they weren't satisfied, with Senate Republican Leader Daniel Bonham saying in a statement that Kotek should direct LaVonne Griffin-Valade to audit all voter registrations to ensure that Oregon's voter rolls are accurate.
“While I appreciate Governor Kotek’s directive to the DMV to take proactive steps to avoid further errors with the state’s motor voter program, it’s not enough," Bonham said. "The only reason we know about the DMV registering 1,259 noncitizens to vote is because a national think tank started asking questions. This tells me that there’s probably much larger, systematic issues at play. For Governor Kotek to suggest that this is the only necessary action to clean up our voter rolls suggests that she’s more focused on managing appearances than solving real problems.”
Bonham's Republican colleagues in the Oregon House called for a formal legislative briefing on the steps being taken to address the issue, as opposed to the press releases being issued to the general public.
How did this happen?
According to the DMV, the registration issue arose from a mix of human error and the interaction of two pieces of legislation adopted within the past decade. Through Oregon's 2016 Motor Voter law, customers of the DMV who have provided proof of citizenship have their information sent to the secretary of state's office and are automatically registered to vote.
That was simple enough when practically all DMV customers were U.S. citizens. But at the beginning of 2021, the "Driver Licenses for All" law authorized the DMV to provide IDs and driver licenses to noncitizens.
Because noncitizens by definition do not have a U.S. passport or birth certificate, they should not be eligible for Motor Voter. However, the DMV found that in some cases staff had mistakenly selected "U.S. passport" or "U.S. birth certificate" in their system when they should have indicated a foreign passport or birth certificate, resulting in the improper voter registrations.
The DMV has said that the errors were discovered while proactively analyzing its system ahead of the 2024 general election, as it looked for "possible, though unlikely, causes for error."
But according to reporting from The Oregonian, the Oregon DMV didn't think to look for errors of this kind until officials received an inquiry from the nonprofit Institute for Responsive Government, a think tank dedicated to ensuring government systems are transparent and user-friendly. The organization expresses support for the idea of automatic voter registration.
To date, the DMV reports that 766,756 people have been registered to vote through Oregon's Motor Voter program. In tracking down registrations impacted by the error, the DMV said it went through 1.4 million records compiled since 2021.
After identifying the 1,259 people believed to be registered to vote in error, the DMV said it sent that information onto the secretary of state, who ordered they be inactivated and sent notifications to the people impacted.
“As a partner to Oregon’s Secretary of State, Oregon DMV is proud of the role it plays in helping U.S. citizens engage in our elections,” said Amy Joyce, DMV administrator. “We identified a rare but important anomaly that we have now corrected. We regret this situation occurred, but we are relieved that our swift action allowed DMV and the Secretary of State to correct the issue before the coming election. We are committed to strengthening the accessibility and reliability of our elections.”
To vote in the 2024 election, voters need to register no later than Oct. 15, which means anyone on the inactivated list now legally eligible to vote will need to return with the proper documentation by then.
