Oregon resumes automatic voter registration, paused for months because of DMV errors

Ryan Patraw process ballots at the Marion County Clerk’s Office in Salem on Monday, May 16. Each ballot goes through several steps before it is scanned to have the vote tabulated. (Ron Cooper/Oregon Capital Chronicle)

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 last 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, responded to news that the program would resume by calling for a full audit of Oregon’s voter registration system. 

“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.”