Oregon strikes an additional 302 people from voter rolls over lack of citizenship proof

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon authorities said Monday they had removed another 302 people from the state’s voter rolls after determining they didn’t provide proof of citizenship when they were registered to vote, in the latest revelation of improper voter registrations stemming from clerical errors at the state DMV.

Monday’s announcement, in addition to the 1,259 people whose voter registrations have already been inactivated because of the issue, brings the total number of mistaken registrations to 1,561. It came the same day the DMV released a report about the errors, which were first acknowledged by authorities last month.

The mistake occurred in part because Oregon passed a law in 2019 allowing some residents who aren’t citizens to obtain driver’s licenses. And the state’s so-called “Motor Voter” law, which took effect in 2016, automatically registers most people to vote when they seek a new license or ID.

“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,” DMV Administrator Amy Joyce said in a statement. “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. DMV will follow the Governor’s directed actions and remains committed to continuous learning, corrective action, transparency and accountability.”

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek has directed the DMV to pause automatic voter registration. She also called for an independent, external audit of the state’s Motor Voter system in a joint statement with Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade.

“The first step in restoring the public’s trust in Oregon Motor Voter is a transparent review by a neutral third party operating under strict government auditing standards,” Griffin-Valade said in a statement.

Griffin-Valade said she has “full confidence” that the errors won’t impact the November election.

She has ordered her office’s elections division to immediately hire a new Motor Voter oversight position, according to the statement. And she has instructed the division to establish a documented process for performing regular data checks with the DMV and update the administrative rules governing the Motor Voter system.

Of the 302 additional cases, 178 were due to people from the U.S. territory of American Samoa being misclassified as U.S. citizens, the DMV report said. However, under federal law, people from American Samoa are U.S. nationals, not citizens, and don’t have the same right to vote. Another 123 records stemmed from the previously identified clerical error, but weren’t included in prior reviews due to to a newly identified software issue. And one case was caught by the DMV’s new quality controls.

The secretary of state’s office said it’s working to verify whether the 302 people cast ballots.

In its report, the DMV outlined the actions it has taken to fix the error, including multiple changes to the computer system into which voter information is entered, manual daily quality checks and staff training.

Of the 1,259 people previously found to be possibly ineligible, ten were found to have voted after being improperly registered, but at least five were later confirmed to have been citizens when they cast their ballots, the DMV statement said. Those who voted after being mistakenly registered represent a tiny fraction of the state’s 3 million registered voters.