The Oregon DMV acknowledged Friday afternoon that it mistakenly registered at least 306 non-citizens as voters since 2021.
Under state and federal laws, non-citizens are prohibited from voting in national or local elections.
The mistake occurred in part because Oregon has allowed non-citizens to obtain driver’s licenses since 2019 and the DMV automatically registers most individuals to vote when they obtain a license or ID, according to Kevin Glenn, spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Transportation, which oversees the DMV.
Glenn said an initial analysis by the state transportation agency revealed 306 non-citizens were allowed to become registered voters. Of those, only two have cast a vote in any election since 2021, Glenn said. He also clarified that the issue is statewide, not limited to any specific county.
DMV Administrator Amy Joyce told The Oregonian/OregonLive and OPB in a call Friday that the office is continuing to check for any potential errors and they will likely find more instances of the DMV allowing non-citizens to register to vote. She said her agency had a two-step process for verifying that license applicants had a U.S. passport or birth certificate but added a third step after learning of the data errors.
“It’s basically a data entry issue,” Glenn said. When a DMV worker enters information about a person seeking a driver’s license or state ID, they can incorrectly code that the person has a U.S. birth certificate or passport when they don’t, Glenn said.
Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade said in a Friday statement the 306 individuals “will be notified by mail that they will not receive a ballot unless they demonstrate that they are eligible to vote.”
Oregon currently has more than 3 million registered voters, meaning 300 or so would represent an incredibly tiny fraction of potential voters, about one ten-thousandth of those who could cast ballots.
The motor vehicle agency’s lapse in enforcing citizenship requirements in all cases was first reported by Willamette Week.
“While this error is regrettable, the secretary and the Elections Division stand by automatic voter registration and its many benefits,” Griffin-Valade said in the statement, adding that her office learned of the issue late Thursday.
Gov. Tina Kotek said in a statement that she has been fully briefed on the situation and directed the DMV to immediately resolve the issue.
“The error in data entry which may have affected the voter eligibility of some Oregonian’s voter registration was discovered because the Oregon DMV and the secretary of state were doing their due diligence ahead of the 2024 election,” Kotek said. “My office will continue to closely monitor the situation. This situation will not impact the 2024 election in any way.”
Oregon Elections Director Molly Woon told The Oregonian/OregonLive and OPB that the Secretary of State’s office will continue to monitor the situation, “keeping in mind that these folks were registered by no fault of their own. They didn’t do anything wrong.”
In the recent past, the DMV assured reporters for The Oregonian/OregonLive that no non-citizens could slip through its system for offering automatic voter registration to qualified Oregon residents.
In 2019, Driver and Motor Vehicle Services spokesperson David House told the news outlet there was no risk people without proof of citizenship or legal residency would get registered to vote by obtaining a driver’s license.
The DMV required all applicants to show proof of citizenship or legal residency to get a license. Only those who are citizens have their names and information passed along to the Secretary of State for potential voter registration, House said in 2019.
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