Oregon DMV finds cases of people being registered to vote despite not showing proof of citizenship

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s DMV says it has found new cases of people being registered to vote despite not showing proof of U.S. citizenship, as it continues to review voter registration records following the disclosure of the errors last fall.

A DMV report released Thursday revealed 118 new cases, in addition to the roughly 1,600 known cases of people who didn’t show proof of citizenship yet were registered to vote. Nearly all of the newfound errors, or 111 cases, involved people whose information was entered into a previous computer system that was in place between 2010 and 2020.

In total, the technical and clerical errors are so far known to have resulted in 1,739 people being mistakenly registered to vote, according to the Secretary of State’s office, which said many were later confirmed to be citizens. As of this month, the office has determined that only 30 of those people voted in an election — a tiny fraction of the state’s roughly 3 million registered voters.

The Secretary of State’s elections division investigated the 30 cases, according to the office’s webpage on the DMV automatic voter registration errors. Eight cases were closed, 19 are still under active investigation by the office and three were referred to the Oregon Department of Justice for further investigation.

Most of the clerical errors stemmed from a drop-down menu option in the DMV’s computer system that staff used when entering personal information, according to authorities.

“None of these people intended to register, represented themselves as eligible to vote, or made any claim to U.S. citizenship. We are sorry for the error and want to be clear that the people mistakenly registered bear no responsibility for it,” the Secretary of State’s webpage says.

The DMV has been reviewing records and issuing monthly reports since the errors were revealed last fall. The mistakes occurred in part because Oregon allows some residents who aren’t citizens to obtain driver’s licenses, and the state’s so-called “Motor Voter” law automatically registers most people to vote when they seek a new license or ID.

The DMV will continue sampling Motor Voter data on a monthly basis through 2025. Both the department and the Secretary of State’s office say they have put new controls in place to prevent the error from occurring.

The DMV resumed automatic voter registrations in February after Gov. Tina Kotek had ordered a pause because of the errors.