As it continues to examine voter registration records after the inaccuracies were made public last autumn, Oregon’s DMV reports that it has discovered new instances of people being registered to vote without presenting documentation of their U.S. citizenship.
In addition to the approximately 1,600 documented cases of people who were registered to vote but failed to provide proof of citizenship, a DMV study issued Thursday found 118 new cases.
111 incidents, or nearly all of the newly discovered inaccuracies, included individuals whose data had been input into an earlier computer system that was in use from 2010 to 2020.
The Secretary of State’s office said that 1,739 people were incorrectly registered to vote as a result of the technological and clerical problems, many of whom were later verified to be citizens.
Only 30 of those individuals cast ballots in an election as of this month, according to the agency, which is a very small percentage of the approximately 3 million registered voters in the state.
According to the office’s webpage on the DMV automated voter registration problems, the 30 incidents were investigated by the Secretary of State’s elections division.
Three cases were sent to the Oregon Department of Justice for additional investigation, eight cases were closed, and 19 cases are still being looked at by the agency.
Authorities claim that the majority of the clerical errors were caused by a drop-down menu option in the DMV’s computer system that employees used to enter personal information.
“None of these people intended to register, represented themselves as eligible to vote, or made any claim to U.S. citizenship. We are sorry for the error and want to be clear that the people mistakenly registered bear no responsibility for it,” according to the Secretary of State’s webpage.
Since the mistakes were discovered last fall, the DMV has been checking records and publishing monthly reports.
The errors happened in part because Oregon’s so-called “Motor Voter” statute automatically registers most people to vote when they apply for a new license or ID, and some residents who are not citizens can receive driver’s licenses.
Through 2025, the DMV will keep collecting monthly samples of Motor Voter data. The Secretary of State’s office and the agency both claim to have implemented new controls to stop the error from happening.
After Gov. Tina Kotek ordered a delay due to the problems, the DMV resumed automatic voter registrations in February.
Source: AP News
