Oregon strikes an additional 302 people from voter rolls over lack of citizenship proof
PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon authorities said Monday they had removed another 302 people from the state’s voter rolls after finding they had not provided proof of citizenship when they were registered to vote, in the latest revelation of improper voter registrations due to clerical errors at the state DMV.
Monday’s announcement, in addition to the 1,259 people whose voter registration has already been inactivated due to the problem, brings the total number of incorrect registrations to 1,561. It came the same day the DMV released a report on the errors, which were first acknowledged by authorities last month.
The error arose in part because Oregon passed a law in 2019 that allows some residents who are not citizens to obtain a driver’s license. And the state’s so-called “Motor Voter” law, which took effect in 2016, automatically registers most people to vote when they apply for a new license or ID.
Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade and Governor Tina Kotek jointly called for an independent, third-party audit of the state’s motor voter system.
“The first step in restoring public confidence in Oregon Motor Voter is a transparent review by a neutral third party operating under strict government audit standards,” Griffin-Valade said in a statement.
Griffin-Valade said she has “complete confidence” that the errors will not affect the November election.
According to the statement, she has directed her office’s elections division to immediately appoint a new supervisory position for motor voters. And she has directed the division to establish a documented process for conducting regular data audits at the DMV and updating the administrative rules for the Motor Voter system.
Of the 302 additional cases, 178 were due to people from the U.S. territory of American Samoa being misclassified as U.S. citizens, the DMV report said. However, under federal law, people from American Samoa are U.S. citizens, not citizens, and do not have the same voting rights. Another 123 records arose from the previously identified administrative error but were not included in previous reviews due to a newly identified software issue. And one case was discovered by the DMV’s new quality controls.
The foreign minister said it is working to verify whether the 302 people have cast their votes.
In its report, the DMV outlined actions it took to correct the error, including multiple changes to the computer system in which voter information is entered, manual daily quality checks and staff training.
Of the 1,259 people who may have previously been ineligible, nine have voted in elections since 2021 — a small fraction of the state’s 3 million registered voters. Ten people were found to have voted after being incorrectly registered, but one was later confirmed eligible, authorities said.