Oregon DMV acknowledges over 300 potential non-citizens were mistakenly registered to vote

PORTLAND, Ore. ( KOIN ) — The Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles is responding to reports saying they erroneously registered more than 300 people to vote despite them not providing the proper proof of citizenship to do so.

The errors were first reported in Willamette Week . According to the report, 306 potential non-citizens were registered to vote through the Oregon DMV since 2021.

In a statement, Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Administrator Amy Joyce said in part that of the list of people improperly registered, two have voted.

Oregon DMV said that the two people who voted weren’t necessarily non-citizens when they voted but that they did not show proof of citizenship when they registered. The DMV is working with the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office to determine whether or not they were citizens when they voted.

In Oregon, for those 16 and older, people who apply for or renew a state-issued driver’s license, permit, or ID card are automatically registered to vote if they provide the appropriate documentation proving U.S. citizenship.

The DMV said the error possibly happened when DMV staff inadvertently selected non-U.S. citizen IDs as proof of citizenship, such as a foreign passport or foreign birth certificate.

“Because having a U.S. version of either of those documents means a person is a citizen, the system included them in the file DMV sent to the Elections Division for the next step in the voter registration process,” Joyce said.

The error was spotted when the DMV was “proactively analyzing this system in advance of the 2024 election.”

“To prevent this unlikely error from occurring again, DMV immediately instituted a prompt in the data entry screen to ensure front desk staff accurately enter citizenship information and the agency has developed a third step (daily auditing of all transactions, after a two-step verification during the transaction) to verify materials are accurate before forwarding them to the Elections Division,” Joyce said.

The DMV said they completed an analysis of passport-based registrations, which were identified as being the most at-risk for the error. An effort by the DMV is also underway to verify birth certificate-based registrations, which could take up to two weeks to complete, officials said.

U.S. Rep. Andreas Salinas (D-Ore.) released the following statement asking for an investigation into the Oregon DMV’s failure in order to protect elections integrity:

“ Today’s announcement from the Secretary of State that noncitizens were mistakenly added to Oregon’s voter rolls is disturbing. This is total malpractice on the part of the Department of Motor Vehicles and is completely unacceptable. I am calling on the state to act quickly to remove these individuals from the rolls, conduct a full and transparent investigation into how this occurred, and provide concrete steps they are taking to remedy this issue and prevent it from happening again. However, I want to emphasize that this was a bureaucratic error by the Oregon DMV and not a systemic attempt to cheat the system by organizations or individuals.”

The entire statement by Motor Vehicle Services Administrator Amy Joyce is below:

“In Oregon, people 16 years and older who apply for or renew a state-issued driver’s license, permit, or ID card and provide appropriate documentation proving U.S. citizenship have their information sent to Oregon’s Secretary of State to complete the automatic voter registration process. The Oregon Motor Voter System at DMV includes a two-step review process by officials to verify registrants’ identity and residence and confirm their eligibility to vote.

“ While proactively analyzing this system in advance of the 2024 election, DMV identified possible, though unlikely, causes for error. One example was DMV staff inadvertently selecting “U.S. passport” when the document was a foreign passport. The other example was inadvertently selecting “U.S. birth certificate” when the document was a foreign birth certificate. Because having a U.S. version of either of those documents means a person is a citizen, the system included them in the file DMV sent to the Elections Division for the next step in the voter registration process.

“DMV has completed an analysis of the passport-based registrations identified above as these appeared to be subject to the biggest risk for error. This analysis shows around .01% of the total universe of registered Oregonians were identified as incorrectly sent by DMV to the Elections Division at Secretary of State for Automatic Voter Registration.

“ Initial analysis by the Oregon Secretary of State has identified that of the people on that list, two have voted. Importantly, this does not mean those individuals were not U.S. citizens at the time they voted – just that they failed to provide proof of citizenship to DMV. The SOS office is working through that now.

“ To prevent this unlikely error from occurring again, DMV immediately instituted a prompt in the data entry screen to ensure front desk staff accurately enter citizenship information and the agency has developed a third step (daily auditing of all transactions, after a two-step verification during the transaction) to verify materials are accurate before forwarding them to the Elections Division.

“ Efforts to verify the birth-certificate based registrations remain ongoing and will likely take up to two weeks to complete. This analysis will be completed well before ballots are sent in Oregon.

“ 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. While we regret this situation occurred, we moved swiftly to correct the issue, and we remain committed to strengthening the accessibility and reliability of our elections.”

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