Oregon lawmakers hold first hearing on DMV’s 1,259 mistaken voter registrations without proof of citizenship

SALEM, Ore. (KGW/KTVZ) -- Oregon lawmakers waded into a voter registration controversy on Wednesday with the first legislative hearing held since the Secretary of State's office and Department of Transportation announced that 1,259 people had been mistakenly added to the voter rolls without providing proof of U.S. citizenship, and ten of them had cast ballots, KGW reported.

ODOT and elections officials appeared apologetic at the hearing, particularly for the timing of the discovery, but insisted that the issue has been corrected. Elections staff also said they've confirmed that the error was not large enough to have affected the outcome of any prior election.

"This issue will have no impact on the 2024 election. We were able to catch the error in time," said Ben Morris, chief of staff at the Oregon Secretary of State's office.

You can watch the recorded video of the committee's hearing here.

Eligible residents who receive driver licenses or state ID cards are automatically registered to vote in Oregon, but in 2021 the state started allowing noncitizens to obtain driver licenses. According to ODOT, the mistake happened when DMV staff accidentally selected the wrong option on a computer menu when listing applicants' identifying documents.

"This was truly a clerical error. We have a drop-down menu of documents that people can provide to prove their identity and age in DMV transactions, and that menu defaulted to U.S. passport or U.S. birth certificate," said DMV administrator Amy Joyce.

ODOT initially announced on Sept. 13 that it had discovered 306 cases, and then announced Monday that the number had grown to 1,259 after a full review. In an FAQ ahead of the hearing, ODOT said the full review included all licenses and ID cards issued after Jan. 1, 2021, the day the DMV started allowing noncitizens to apply, totaling about 1.4 million records. REAL ID licenses were not included because they go through separate federal verification.

Credit: Oregon Department of Transportation

Screenshot of the old DMV menu system that caused people to be mistakenly registered to vote without providing proof of U.S. citizenship.

The data entry mistake doesn't necessarily mean that all of the 1,259 people were not U.S. citizens, ODOT added — it just means the documentation they provided at the DMV to obtain a license did not include proof of citizenship, so it shouldn't have been forwarded to the Secretary of State's office to be added to the voter rolls.

ODOT and elections officials previously announced that only 10 of the people had actually submitted a ballot in any election over the past four years, and one of them was subsequently confirmed to have been a U.S. citizen at the time they voted. 

At the hearing, Elections Director Molly Woon said her office is still checking the other nine and she expected to have final results by the end of the day, but added that the office has already confirmed that none of them voted in elections that were close enough that their votes could have affected the outcome. If the elections division finds that any of them were not citizens at the time they cast their ballots, their cases could be referred to the Oregon Department of Justice.

The Secretary of State's office immediately deactivated the voter registration of the first 306 people and has now done the same with all 1,259 cases, Woon said, but added that they will all be notified of the change by the end of this week and given instructions for how to reactivate their voter registration if they can prove their citizenship.

Joyce and ODOT director Kris Strickler said the DMV has already updated its software to display the identification drop-down options in alphabetical order and added a confirmation pop-up if U.S. passport or U.S. birth certificate is selected. A manager in each DMV office is also now double-checking every transaction at the end of each day.

Most of the lawmakers on the committee appeared satisfied with ODOT's remedial measures, with the bulk of the critical questions focused on why the agency didn't detect the clerical error until an outside group intervened.

ODOT previously acknowledged that it began the review after a group called the Institute for Responsive Government reached out over the summer. According to Strickler, the nonprofit didn't discover any improper registrations — it just asked some general questions about how Oregon's voter registration system was working, and the questions prompted ODOT to begin a review.

"Let me state the obvious. Should we have been looking sooner than a few months before the election? Absolutely," Joyce said.

Some lawmakers at the hearing also asked about what the elections office is doing to protect the 1,259 people on the list from harassment or legal consequences, with committee chair Rep. Ben Bowman stressing that none of them asked to be added to the voter rolls, and they were all registered as a result of a government error.

Woon said the notification letter sent to each of them will include instructions for obtaining an official "no-fault letter" that will confirm they were registered by accident and state it shouldn't be held against them in the future. Morris added that his office does not plan to release the list and believes it is exempt from public records law because it contains private voter data.

"We are very sensitive to the fact that this list could put people's lives in danger," he said.

--

News release from the Oregon House Majority Office:

Oregon DMV and Secretary of State Say Recent Clerical Errors Didn’t Impact Previous Elections, Won’t Impact 2024 Election  

House Rules Committee members learned about what led to errors, the corrective actions taken, and reaffirmed that Oregon’s automatic voter registration system remains among the best in the country

SALEM, Ore. – Today, the House Rules Committee held a hearing to review Monday’s announcement that Oregon DMV’s clerical errors led to 1,259 Oregonians being improperly registered to vote (0.04% of registered voters in the state), with 9 of those potentially ineligible voters having returned ballots. The Secretary of State’s office affirmed that no ballots will be issued to any potential non-US citizen for the upcoming election, and the DMV demonstrated progress in improved accuracy through safeguards in their processes to register Oregon voters. 

Chair of the Rules Committee Ben Bowman called a hearing shortly after the completion of a review of more than 1.4 million voter records and systems put in place by DMV and the Secretary of State’s offices. 

“This error means our automatic voter registration system is 99.9% effective. It’s our job as elected leaders to make this 100%,” said House Majority Leader Ben Bowman (D-Tigard, Metzger, & S. Beaverton) and Chair of the House Rules Committee. “We’ve seen the benefits of automatic voter registration including improving ease, security, and accessibility of voting. We will closely monitor the implementation of the new practices and procedures discussed at the hearing to ensure the integrity of our elections.”

During the hearing, representatives raised the issue of how the errors could impact people incorrectly registered to vote, calling attention to the fact that those impacted did not ask to be registered, did not ask to vote, and were sent a ballot anyway. 

“I appreciate the Secretary of State’s office working to confirm the citizenship of the nine individuals with voting records and its commitment to sharing legal services providers with those in need,” said Rep. Andrea Valderrama (D-Outer East Portland). “We all value secure and accessible elections, and I’m glad voter registration errors were found and corrected.”

The DMV confirmed that all 1,259 ineligible voters will receive a letter with more information about the mistake and how to re-register to vote, if applicable. These letters will be available in the 13 most common languages in Oregon. When asked when the agencies will know if the 9 identified potentially ineligible voters were in fact ineligible, they confirmed that they should have an answer today. 

“The DMV and Secretary of State have been up front about how the issue was identified, what has been implemented and what will change in the future,” said Rep. Jason Kropf (D- Bend). “I appreciate that they've been able to move quickly and make the necessary updates to their system. What I’m looking for is continued communication about their progress, because we all should have full faith in Oregon’s voting process.”

At the request of Governor Tina Kotek’s office, the Oregon DMV is to implement updated internal training, conduct an After Action Report and data integrity review, and establish a data quality control calendar in coordination with the Oregon Secretary of State to ensure due diligence ahead of elections. The DMV confirmed the training and After Action Report are already in progress and scheduled to be complete in the next two weeks, the quality control calendar will be implemented post-2024 election, and the data integrity review will likely go through the end of the year. 

--

News release from the Oregon House Republican Caucus:

House Republicans Release Statement on Non-citizen Voter Hearing

SALEM, Ore. – Republican members of the House Committee on Rules Leader Jeff Helfrich (R-Hood River) and state Reps. Anna Scharf (R-Amity) and Kim Wallan (R-Medford) released the following statement after hearing testimony on how non-citizens registered and voted in Oregon elections.

“Republicans have long cautioned that automatic voter registration would lead to problems such as non-citizens being registered to vote. The Majority dismissed our concerns and assured us that safeguards were in place to protect the integrity of our registration process. Testimony today indicated that those safeguards, in fact, were not in place and the problem would not have been caught without an inquiry from an outside entity. While we appreciate the steps the state has taken to prevent problems in the future, more must be done to ensure that Oregon’s elections are safe, secure and accurate. Only Americans should vote in American elections, and Republicans will always defend the integrity of our elections.”

House Republican members of the Oregon legislature intend to introduce legislation in the upcoming long session to strengthen Oregon’s election process. Republican legislation would:

• Require that the Oregon Secretary of State perform voter roll audits.
• Require the Oregon Secretary of State to verify the eligibility status of voters registered through the Motor Voter program.