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The state’s Motor Voter automatic registration system is more flawed than state officials admitted last month when they acknowledged the Oregon Department of Transportation’s Oregon Driver & Motor Vehicle Services erroneously added 1,259 noncitizens to voter rolls. (Officials say just nine of them actually may have voted.)
Related: Oregon DMV Mistakenly Allowed a Total of 1,259 Noncitizens to be Placed on Voting Rolls
On Oct. 8, the DMV said it had identified a total of 302 more people who were improperly registered to vote—123 of whom were registered under a data-entry glitch identified earlier; one who was identified when he went in to exchange an out-of-state license for an Oregon license; and 178 people born in American Samoa who were added to the rolls because of a flawed policy described below.
On Oct. 3, WW asked the DMV about the manual it uses to determine whether people who seek new driver’s licenses or license renewals should be automatically added to the voter rolls, as Oregon’s Motor Voter Law allows.
Specifically, WW asked about a section of the manual that deals with people born in U.S. Territories.
Here’s what that section says:
“Birth documents issued by the U.S. Territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands are acceptable as proof of U.S. citizenship.”
But part of that statement in the DMV manual is factually incorrect.
“Persons born in American Samoa and Swains Island [part of American Samoa] are generally considered nationals but not citizens of the United States,” according to the U.S. Custom and Immigration Services.
On Oct. 4, ODOT spokesman Kevin Glenn acknowledged the error.
“DMV was not aware of this issue and we appreciate you bringing it to our attention,” Glenn said in an email.
“From what we understand at this time, residents of American Samoa can have a U.S. passport but are not eligible to vote in some elections. We will include this in our continued data integrity analysis and will provide updates.”
WW then asked how many people who are not citizens the state have been registered to vote in Oregon.
“We plan to provide an update on this topic in the After-Action Report, scheduled to be released this afternoon,” Glenn told WW on Oct. 8.
As part of DMV’s report today, DMV administrator Amy Joyce apologized for her agency’s errors.
“Two weeks ago, we believed we had all of the information to project confidence that we understood and had reviewed all records at risk of error,” Joyce says. “We have since learned this confidence was misplaced based on new information outlined in this announcement and after-action report and for this, we are sorry.”
Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade, the state’s top elections officer, said today she doesn’t think the newly discovered errors will affect next month’s voting.
“Thanks to the swift action of elections officials, I have full confidence that these new errors will not impact the 2024 election,” Griffin-Valade said. Her agency posted an FAQ page with more details about the situation.
Her likely successor, State Treasurer Tobias Read, the Democrat nominee for secretary of state, said if he wins and becomes Oregon’s chief elections officer, he will demand higher standards from the voter registration system.
“I am encouraged that these revelations are finally receiving the scrutiny they demand,” Read said. “Oregonians deserve a thorough investigation of the automatic voter registration program’s implementation, as well as accountability at both the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Secretary of State’s Office. If that is not achieved by this investigation, I can assure you I will provide it if I am the next secretary of state.”
Gov. Tina Kotek, who as the state’s top executive oversees ODOT, says she and Griffin-Valade have paused automatic voter registration as of Sept. 30 and ordered an outside audit of the program. The Department of Administrative Services, which also reports to Kotek, will hire an independent auditing firm, which Kotek said will design the scope of the review.
“Any error that undermines our voting system must be taken incredibly seriously and addressed,” Kotek said. “Given the findings in the Oregon DMV’s After-Action Report, an immediate external audit of the Oregon Motor Voter program and a pause to data transmission between the Oregon DMV and SoS are imperative steps to ensuring the program can operate with integrity and accuracy into the future.”