Oregon Governor Tina Kotek has ordered the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to stop transmitting Oregon Motor Voter data to the secretary of state. This decision comes after a review revealed that an additional 302 noncitizens were improperly registered to vote under the state’s motor voter law. The DMV can automatically register residents to vote when they obtain a driver’s license or state ID, as long as they provide proof of citizenship.
Last month, it was announced that 1,259 noncitizens had been registered to vote without providing proof of U.S. citizenship. Following this discovery, Governor Kotek instructed the DMV to produce an “after-action report,” which identified the additional 302 improper registrations. The DMV has referred these registrations to Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade for deactivation and attributed their oversight during the initial investigation to a technical error.
The previously identified 1,259 individuals have already been deactivated from the voter rolls. In response to these findings, both Governor Kotek and Secretary Griffin-Valade have called for an independent external audit of the motor voter program.
The issue first came to light on September 13 when it was revealed that 300 people had been mistakenly added to the voter rolls due to a clerical error. However, after an internal audit, this number increased significantly.
During a hearing on September 25 before the Oregon House Committee on Rules, it was discovered that although this problem had been identified in early August, neither Governor Kotek nor Secretary Griffin-Valade were notified until six weeks later.
Secretary Griffin-Valade has expressed confidence that these new errors will not impact the upcoming election in 2024 but emphasized the need for transparency and accountability through a neutral third-party review conducted under strict government auditing standards.
In response to these developments, she has ordered her office’s elections division to establish a new motor voter oversight position and implement regular data checks with the DMV while updating system rules.
Some lawmakers have raised concerns about these ongoing issues with Oregon’s automatic voter registration system and are calling for all ineligible voters be removed from the rolls before November’s election. They also suggest investigating possible violations of existing laws related to voter registration in order ensure integrity in future elections.