The Oregon DMV recently reported that 118 individuals who were likely non-citizens were mistakenly registered to vote, bringing the total of erroneous registrations in the past year to over 1,700. The errors, most of which occurred before last year, went undetected until recently, with at least 13 individuals casting votes in one or more elections.
The Secretary of State’s Office is now investigating these individuals’ voting records to determine if they voted illegally or if they had become citizens prior to voting. The errors were primarily attributed to the DMV’s software, used between 2010 and 2020, that allowed staff to manually select applicants’ citizenship status, leading to some individuals being incorrectly categorized as citizens.
After discovering these errors, Governor Tina Kotek temporarily paused Oregon’s motor voter system, which automatically registers individuals to vote when they renew or apply for a driver’s license or state ID. Following an external review and implementation of new safeguards, the program resumed in February with no additional errors reported.
In response to the report, four Oregon House Republicans plan to introduce legislation to reassign automatic voter registration from the DMV to the Secretary of State’s Office. The proposed legislation may face Democratic resistance, as they have maintained that Oregon’s voting system is secure and that the DMV has taken appropriate measures to rectify any issues. External audits and ongoing monitoring by state agencies aim to prevent similar errors in the future.
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