Oregon resumes automatic voter registration, paused for months because of DMV errors
(Update: Oregon Capital Chronicle story)
By Julia Shumway, Oregon Capital Chronicle
SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Oregon’s automatic voter registration program, paused since October after state officials learned more than 1,600 people who might not have been U.S. citizens were wrongly registered to vote, resumed on Wednesday.
Since 2016, the state Motor Vehicle Services Division has sent information to the Secretary of State’s Office each time someone with a U.S. passport or birth certificate gets or renews a driver’s license or state ID so that person can be registered to vote.
Gov. Tina Kotek ordered a temporary stop to that program in October after learning that DMV errors led to people who presented foreign birth certificates or passports wrongly being registered to vote. Another error involved about 300 people from the U.S. territories of American Samoa and Swains Island, who have U.S. passports but are not U.S. citizens and can’t vote in most elections.
On Wednesday, after monthly reviews showing no further errors at the DMV since November and the release of a data integrity report from the audit firm Deloitte, Kotek decided to resume automatic voter registration.
“Oregon’s electoral system is one of the most secure, effective, and accessible in the nation. Even so, any error that undermines that system or Oregonians’ confidence in that system must be taken incredibly seriously and urgently addressed,” Kotek said. “After reforms at the DMV and multiple months showing a good bill of data health, it is time to restart Oregon’s Motor Voter program.”
State officials previously identified more than 1,600 incorrect registrations. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield confirmed late last week that the state Department of Justice is investigating whether three of those people broke the law by voting as noncitizens — a crime that could result in prison time, fines or deportation.
“While these cases are rare, it is our responsibility to investigate thoroughly and ensure that all voting is conducted in accordance with the law,” Rayfield said. “Ensuring the integrity of Oregon’s elections is a priority for our office. We will take appropriate action based on the facts and evidence we find as the result of our investigation.”
The Secretary of State’s Office, which sent Rayfield those three names, hadn’t determined their citizenship status. Some of the more than 1,600 people who were incorrectly registered to vote, including some who voted, were citizens. Election officials removed all of them from voting rolls while investigating.
Secretary of State Tobias Read said Wednesday that his office will randomly sample automatic voter registration files each month and confirm each day that the number of files sent by the DMV and received by elections officials is the same. Each year, staff from the secretary of state’s office and representatives from the Oregon Association of County Clerks will visit the state Department of Transportation to review voter registration processes, he added.
“These are first steps, focused on getting the fundamentals right,” Read said. “I will continue to dig into the system and take action whenever I can to strengthen our voter rolls and prevent future mistakes. Our highest priority is — and must always be — protecting the integrity of Oregonians’ fair, secure, and accessible elections.”
Republican legislators have introduced bills to permanently end automatic voter registration and require Oregonians prove citizenship to register to vote. Federal law only requires people to attest to citizenship, with the warning that they could face federal criminal charges if they aren’t eligible to vote. None of those bills have been scheduled for hearings.
Senate Minority Leader Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles and House Minority Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby, responded to news that the program would resume by calling for a full audit of Oregon’s voter registration system. The state already hired an outside contractor, the Baker Tilly Advisory Group, to conduct an audit, and it’s expected to release its final report by the end of April.
“The reality is that Oregonians still have doubts about the integrity of our voter rolls, and a patchwork of fixes won’t be enough to fully restore confidence,” Bonham said. “A comprehensive, independent audit of our entire voter registration system is the only way to ensure that every Oregonian has faith in the security and accuracy of our elections.”
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News releases from Oregon DMV, Secretary of State Tobias Read:
SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) - As of Tuesday, the Oregon DMV is resuming sending records to the Oregon Secretary of State for automatic voter registration, the so-called "Motor Voter" law that led to major issues and political fallout last year, when it was learned the process failed to verify citizenship for hundreds of people.
(Just last week, the Oregon Capital Chronicle reported that three people mistakenly registered to vote by DMV could face a criminal investigation for voting, despite not being U.S. citizens.)
Here's the rest of the full announcement from DMV, followed by one from Secretary of State Tobias Read:
The Oregon Motor Voter Act makes voter registration automatic with an opt-out process. Oregonians 16 years and older who apply for or renew a state-issued driver’s license, permit, or ID card -- and provide appropriate documentation proving U.S. citizenship -- have their information sent to Oregon’s Secretary of State.
In October 2024, Governor Kotek directed Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicle Services (DMV) to temporarily pause the transfer of Oregon Motor Voter records to the Secretary of State. DMV continued to collect and hold records throughout this period. With the pause ended, those records will now also be sent to the Secretary of State.
“Oregon’s electoral system is one of the most secure, effective, and accessible in the nation. Even so, any error that undermines that system or Oregonians’ confidence in that system must be taken incredibly seriously and urgently addressed,” Governor Kotek said. “Last fall, I called for a series of actions to address data errors in the Oregon Motor Voter program, which the Oregon DMV has, and will continue, to implement. After reforms at the DMV and multiple months showing a good bill of data health, it is time to restart Oregon’s Motor Voter program.”
Governor Kotek directed DMV to pause Oregon Motor Voter due to the discovery of clerical and policy errors made by DMV that resulted in more than 1,600 people mistakenly being registered to vote.
In reviewing these files, the Secretary of State found that virtually all of these individuals did not vote. Of the roughly 1,600 people mistakenly registered, only 17 voted in any election and many of them were later confirmed to be citizens.
DMV has since put controls and processes in place to minimize the risk of error. Examples include:
- Hiring a Voter Registration Integrity Analyst.
- Instituting a third review at the end of the day in which a manager reviews all files to verify accuracy before the information is sent to the Elections Division of the Secretary of State for automatic voter registration.
- Changing the user interface to make it less likely for DMV staff to select the wrong document, including by separating foreign documents from U.S. documents that prove citizenship onto completely different screens.
Details on all the many improvements can be found in the FAQ.
Since the pause, DMV has monthly sampled new Oregon Motor Voter records and manually reviewed them against information collected from customers to verify accuracy and correct any errors. DMV publishes the information in a monthly report.
No new mistaken registrations have been found in the Oregon Motor Voter file in transactions that have taken place since controls were put in place in October 2024. DMV will continue to sample Oregon Motor Voter data monthly through 2025.
Governor Kotek directed ODOT to initiate a data integrity review of DMV. ODOT hired Deloitte to conduct this review. The Deloitte report states this: “We believe these enhanced processes, along with DMV’s observations and measurements regarding their effectiveness, provide adequate confidence that data integrity within OLIVR (Oregon License Issuance and Vehicle Registration) is sufficient to reinstitute the process of Oregon Motor Voter data transfers to the Secretary of State. Our view is qualified on the condition that DMV sustains these measures and continues to validate the data files (composed of data exported from OLIVR) transmitted to the Secretary of State for completeness, accuracy, and timeliness.”
“As a partner to Oregon’s Secretary of State, Oregon DMV is proud of the role it plays in helping U.S. citizens engage in our elections,” said Amy Joyce, DMV administrator. “We will continue our work to ensure the Oregon Motor Voter process is more secure and reliable than ever.”
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Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read Announces New Protections for Oregon’s Voter Rolls
SALEM, OR —Today, as Governor Tina Kotek lifted the pause on the transmission of Oregon Motor Voter Data from Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicle Services (DMV) to the Secretary of State’s office (SoS), Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read announced new protections he is putting into place to help prevent future errors in Oregon’s voter registration process.
“The new protections we are adding today will help us catch and fix government data entry errors faster. These are first steps, focused on getting the fundamentals right. I will continue to dig into the system and take action whenever I can to strengthen our voter rolls and prevent future mistakes. Our highest priority is – and must always be – protecting the integrity of Oregonians’ fair, secure, and accessible elections,” said Secretary Read.
The steps the SoS will take include:
- Random Sampling – SoS staff will randomly sample Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) files once every month and have the DMV confirm that each file was accurately and appropriately entered and dispatched. This sample will be in addition to other data integrity efforts underway at the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT).
- Daily Control File – The DMV and SoS will add a simple, daily confirmation step whereby DMV and SoS staff will ensure that the number of Oregon Moter Voter files the SoS receives is the same as the number the DMV sent.
- Review Panel – At least once per year, ODOT will host a review panel from SoS, including election, internal audit, information technology, and/or administrative staff, as well as representatives from the Oregon Association of County Clerks to review the registration process and procedures and the success of existing controls put in place at ODOT.
Secretary Read will also follow through on the voter roll protection commitments made by the previous administration, including hiring a new position solely dedicated to overseeing the Oregon Motor Voter program with a counterpart at the DMV.
Furthermore, with the lifting of the Oregon Motor Voter pause, the SoS is committed to working in partnership with all the County Clerks and elections directors to address the data that has accumulated since the pause began with the goal of ensuring that all eligible Oregonians have up-to-date, accurate voter registrations.
“Thank you to the SoS staff, County Clerks, and elections directors for going above and beyond to ensure our voter rolls are updated and accurate, and thank you to the people of Oregon for your patience as we work through this process. This is no small task. We will do everything in our power to make this go smoothly, and if issues arise, we’ll act quickly and transparently to get them fixed,” added Secretary Read.
Up-to-date information on the DMV Automatic Voter Registration error and how it impacted Oregonians can be found here.
