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The Oregon Department of Transportation and the secretary of state’s office today released new information about the number of non-citizen voters who were mistakenly placed on voter rolls, upping the total number of voters erroneously placed on the rolls from 306 to 1,259.
Related: Oregon DMV May Have Mistakenly Registered More Than 300 Non-Citizens to Vote
In a Monday afternoon press conference, ODOT director Kris Strickler said the mistakes resulted from a “data processing” errors in ODOT’s Oregon Driver & Motor Vehicle Services division, which he said the agency deeply regrets. Strickler explained that DMV discovered the errors after an inquiry from a think-tank called the Institute for Responsive Government.
On Sept. 13, after examining its files, the DMV announced it had mistakenly allowed 306 people who applied for drivers licenses but were not citizens to be placed on voter rolls. That resulted from the confluence of two laws. The first is Oregon’s 2015 Motor Voter law, which provided for automatic voter registration anytime a person over 18 obtains or renews a driver’s license. The second is the 2019 Drivers Licenses for All Act, which allowed non-citizens to obtain drivers’ licenses. DMV began processing applications for drivers licenses under the combined laws Jan. 1, 2021.
Earlier this month, the DMV told Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade that it had discovered the erroneous registrations. The secretary of state, who oversees elections, subsequently determined that two of those 306 people had voted. Officials today said that one of those two people was in fact eligible to vote.
ODOT officials now say a subsequent examination of DMV files yielded another 953 names of people mistakenly placed on the rolls since Jan. 1, 2021, bringing the total number mistakenly placed on the rolls to 1,259. (That total includes the earlier 306 announced Sept. 13). Of those names newly discovered, eight of them have voted. The secretary of state has asked county election clerks to remove those eight people from the rolls unless the people can show they are eligible.
The news 10 days ago that non-citizens were placed on the rolls comes amid widespread concerns (few of them substantiated) about election integrity nationally and caused widespread outcry from both Democrats and Republicans who demanded that DMV and the secretary of state’s office fix the problem and make sure it not happen again.
DMV then returned to its database to determine whether other people were erroneously added to voter roles. The figures the agency released today, first reported by Oregon Public Broadcasting, appear to be the end of the matter. At least that’s what officials hope.
Ben Morris, the chief of staff to Griffin-Valade, said today that his agency moved quickly after learning of the issue from DMV Sept. 12 and is now confident that the rolls have been fully vetted and than DMV’s errors will have no impact on the November general election. DMV administrator Amy Joyce said her agency has tweaked the program it uses to register voters and trained staff on its proper use.
In response to the information released today, State Treasurer Tobias Read, the Democratic nominee for secretary of state, blasted the performance of the agency he hopes to lead.
“I continue to be appalled that this happened in the first place,” Read said. “It is unacceptable. While it appears that these errors were made at the DMV, at the end of the day the responsibility for our voter registration system lies with the secretary of state. There should have been a “fail safe” system in place at the SOS to ensure the integrity of data coming into our election system. That should be instituted immediately. If it isn’t, that will be my first order of business as secretary of state.”
Gov. Tina Kotek said she has instructed ODOT to make systemic changes to prevent non-citizens from being registered to vote in the future.
“The integrity of election systems is the cornerstone of a functioning democracy, and any error that can undermine our voting system must be taken seriously and addressed immediately,” Kotek said. “Following round-the-clock corrective action on the part of Oregon DMV to address the known errors and ensure they will not impact the 2024 general election, I am now directing the agency to go above and beyond to ensure errors like this will not happen again.”
Republican legislative leaders said they want more information. “While I appreciate Gov. Kotek’s directive to the DMV to take proactive steps to avoid further errors with the state’s motor voter program, it’s not enough,” says Senate Minority Leader Daniel Bonham (R-The Dalles). “The only reason we know about the DMV registering 1,259 non-citizens to vote is because a national think tank started asking questions. This tells me that there’s probably much larger, systematic issues at play. For Gov. Kotek to suggest that this is the only necessary action to clean up our voter rolls suggests that she’s more focused on managing appearances than solving real problems.”
House Minority Leader Jeff Helrich (R-Hood River) echoed Bonham’s concerns. “A press announcement is no substitute for an open and public hearing,” Helfrich said. “Oregonians deserve full transparency about how this happened. We must have a public hearing.”