Every affected county has completed steps to address potential noncitizens erroneously registered to vote, the Oregon Association of County Clerks said Wednesday.
The OACC said the Secretary of State's Elections Division notified them Monday that the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles mistakenly registered an additional 302 potential noncitizens . A total of 1,561 records were sent to the Secretary of State's Elections Division that should not have been, according to Monday's after-action report.
The DMV in September said the number was 306 .
"Due to the timing of counties receiving notice of this error, a ballot may have been mailed to some of these individuals," the OACC said Wednesday. "However, all of these ballots have been inactivated and will not be counted. Elections officials will stop them at the ballot intake stage."
Marion County, other clerks inactivate ballots
Marion County Clerk Bill Burgess said 25 records were flagged for his office on Monday. One registration already has been cancelled and three individuals had voter registration documents attesting citizenship. The remaining 21 individuals were sent a letter notifying them that their ballot had been inactivated and not to vote or to complete a registration card by Oct. 15.
Burgess also detailed some of the work his office has done in the past month to address the DMV error.
He said 24 individuals were identified in the first notification by the elections division. None had a voting history and each registration was inactivated.
In the second update, 137 individuals were flagged for the Marion County Elections office. Two had a voting history but were later confirmed to be citizens when they voted.
Burgess said three employees spent six days filtering and re-running ballots that were ready to mail out before the office received the second update from the Secretary of State's Office. With ballots packed and limited space, Marion County took the ballots to Washington County to use their sorter, Burgess said. Officials were able to retrieve 120 ballots of the remaining 121.
While they were unable to stop ballots from being sent out before Monday's update, Burgess said those ballots have been inactivated. Each ballot has a unique identification number and will be pulled for further investigation if it is returned, he said.
"We can certainly assure voters that none of the people identified as errantly put forward as citizens that were not citizens are going to be able to vote," Burgess said.
In Polk County, a total of 21 people were identified as erroneously registered, according to Polk County Clerk Kim Williams. None ever voted, all were inactivated and a ballot was not generated, Williams said in an email.
The 21 individuals also were mailed a letter alerting them that their registration had been inactivated with providing them with information on how to register, if they are eligible, Williams said.
"We want to be sure that everybody's voice counts if they're eligible to cast a ballot," Burgess said. "We're going to do everything we can to uphold the integrity of the election."
Deadline to register to vote approaching
Oregonians have until Oct. 15 to register to vote and receive a ballot for the upcoming election. The cutoff date has already passed for automatic voter registrations to be processed from the DMV, and Kotek called for an extended pause on data transfer between the Secretary of State and DMV.
Go to OregonVotes.gov/register to check your voter registration.
To register online, you need to have an Oregon driver's license, permit or ID card number from the Oregon DMV. You also can fill out a Voter Registration form and return it to your county elections office.
Voters can track their ballot through the My Vote website in addition to their registration status. For any problems with your ballot, reach out to your county election office.
Dianne Lugo covers the Oregon Legislature and equity issues. Reach her at dlugo@statesmanjournal.com or on X @DianneLugo
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: County clerks say they have inactivated flagged Oregon ballots
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