PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Oregon Secretary of State Lavonne Griffin-Valade ordered an immediate update of more than 300 voter registrations after hundreds of non-citizens were added to voter rolls over the last three years.

State officials have identified 306 non-citizens who made it onto the Oregon voter rolls . Two non-citizens likely voted, Griffin-Valade’s office said. Her office continues to look into whether there are any more.

It stemmed from errors by the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles. Beginning in 2016, Oregon’s Motor Voter Law automatically registers people to vote when they get or renew a drivers license. In 2021, a bill let people get drivers licenses in the state without proof of citizenship — but they do have to show ID.

Oregon DMV officials said the errors happened when staff mistakenly entered things like foreign birth certificates or foreign passports as identification.

State Rep. Janelle Bynum, who is running for Congress in Oregon’s 5th District, called for an investigation by the Oregon Department of Justice.

“I believe that the right to a free and fair election is, quite simply, non-negotiable. That’s why I’ve called for the attorney general to launch an investigation, full scale, into these allegations because it’s absolutely unacceptable,” Bynum told KOIN 6 News.

Tobias Read, the Democrat running for Oregon Attorney General, told KOIN 6 News he was appalled by the situation.

His Republican opponent, Dennis Linthicum, said this is what the Democrats had in mind.

“The entire political agenda for the Democrat majority has been to allow illegals to vote in the Oregon election and I’m not afraid to say that straight up,” Linthicum told KOIN 6 News. “I think that’s what we’re seeing.”

Republican State Rep. Ed Diehl from East Salem, said he was disappointed but not surprised by the news.

“We see this happening in other states and it was only a matter of time before it happened here,” Diehl said. “So, I’m disappointed that it took so long for us to figure this out.”

Both the DMV and the Secretary of State’s Office said they are taking steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again, including additional prompts for data entry and better verification of identification.

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Eye on Northwest Politics

And they said they remain confident about Oregon’s election integrity — and that the election this November will not be affected. The Secretary of State’s office said this affects .01% of Oregon’s approximately 3 million voters.

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