Oregon’s voter registration errors stretch back further than DMV officials initially indicated

Data entry errors that allowed noncitizens to be registered to vote in Oregon go much further back than state officials previously acknowledged, a report issued by the Oregon Department of Transportation on Friday shows.

The report turned up 118 new cases in which suspected noncitizens were incorrectly entered into the system as citizens. Under the state’s Motor Voter law, people entered as citizens have been automatically registered to vote since 2016.

In 13 of these newly found cases, people registered in error voted in past elections, ODOT says. The agency says it’s possible some or all had become citizens by the time they cast ballots. It’s illegal in Oregon to vote as a noncitizen — even if you received a ballot through no fault of your own.

The Oregon Secretary of State’s Office is investigating all 13 individuals found to have voted.

More troubling in the new report is a significant expansion of the time period in which ODOT’s Driver and Motor Vehicles Division now says registration errors occurred.

ODOT Director Kris Strickler and DMV Administrator Amy Joyce said last year there was no opportunity for noncitizens to be incorrectly registered to vote via DMV before 2021. That’s because of a law that kicked in that year that allows undocumented residents to get driver’s licenses. Joyce has blamed errors in part on a drop-down menu in a DMV computer program that allowed noncitizens to be incorrectly labeled as citizens more easily.

Now, ODOT says it’s finding clerical errors far earlier — before the agency used the maligned drop-down menu. As a rush of Oregonians apply for a REAL ID, the agency reports turning up errors dating back to 2010.

“Errors in the legacy system that caused people to be mis-classified as a citizen from 2010-2020 have been relatively infrequent due to the manual nature of the system, but DMV has been finding and correcting errors in legacy data in recent months as it has worked to correct the issues with [Oregon Motor Voter],” the report says.

Of the 118 new errors turned up in this month’s report, 111 occurred between 2010 and 2020 the agency says. DMV discovered these errors, at least in part, via an automated tool it developed that automatically flags when a person who is coded as a citizen in the state’s system presents a document that suggests they aren’t a citizen.

“For example, someone who was already marked as a citizen in the system might come to DMV to get a REAL ID and show a permanent resident card,” the report says. “This indicates that an error was made during a previous transaction.”

While the agency offered significant details about errors predating 2021 in its new report, it’s not the first time ODOT has mentioned they exist. As the agency reviews its data, it has made brief mention of a small number of “legacy errors” — including two apiece mentioned in reports released in March and February.

County clerks, responsible for updating voter rolls, say they’re scrubbing all invalid voter registrations as they’re alerted to them.

“The Clerks have been informed that additional clerical errors will likely be discovered as work continues to improve the system,” the Oregon Association of County Clerks said in a statement Friday. Voters whose registrations are inactivated will receive a letter.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Tobias Read said in a statement it was “hard not to be disappointed” by the new findings.

“This is an issue of implementation, not policy. Voting from home and Oregon Motor Voter remain strong policies that empower Oregonians to hold politicians accountable,” the statement said. “We cannot guarantee perfection or that no further errors will be discovered, but we must all be committed to continuous improvement and transparency.”

The revelations come less than two months after Gov. Tina Kotek lifted a five-month pause on the state’s automatic voter registration law. Kotek made that decision after a review of new processes at the DMV suggested current protocols are enough to eliminate errors.

A spokesperson for Kotek said Friday she “stands by her decision” to resume the Motor Voter program, and that the DMV’s existing practices have eliminated errors in registrations that occurred after September 2024.

“The Governor believes any error that can undermine Oregonians’ confidence in the election system must be taken incredibly seriously,” said the spokesperson, Lucas Bezerra.

Oregon was the first state in the country to adopt automatic voter registration in 2016, and the process is often credited with expanding voter access. But Republicans for years have raised doubts about the integrity of the system.

This year, GOP lawmakers have introduced bills that would give the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office a stronger role in verifying Motor Voter registrations, or scrap the policy altogether. Now, another proposal is emerging.

A group of four Republican House members announced Friday they would introduce a bill to take Motor Voter registrations out of DMV control, instead placing authority over the program with the secretary of state. Those lawmakers are Reps. Vikki Breese Iverson, R-Prineville, Kim Wallan, R-Medford, Emily McIntire, R-Eagle Point, and Greg Smith, R-Heppner.

“ODOT does not have the expertise to run our primary voter registration program and they either cannot or will not prioritize getting it right.” The lawmakers said they are confident the Secretary of State can “step in and handle operations.”

House Minority Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby, added to the sentiment: “They keep telling us everything is fine,” she said in a statement. “It isn’t. ODOT and DMV should not be responsible for ensuring the integrity of our elections.”

The state began examining the accuracy of registrations last year, following an informal inquiry from a think tank called the Institute for Responsive Government. It quickly uncovered problems in the way that DMV clerks were entering data about people applying for driver’s licenses — ultimately uncovering more than 1,600 people registered in error.

Fewer than 20 of those people had a history of voting. That means the newly identified errors include a far higher percentage of people who have voted.