SALEM, Ore. — Oregon’s DMV says it has discovered new circumstances of individuals being registered to vote regardless of not displaying proof of U.S. citizenship, because it continues to evaluate voter registration data following the disclosure of the errors final fall.
A DMV report launched Thursday revealed 118 new circumstances, along with the roughly 1,600 recognized circumstances of people that didn’t present proof of citizenship but had been registered to vote. Almost the entire newfound errors, or 111 circumstances, concerned folks whose data was entered right into a earlier laptop system that was in place between 2010 and 2020.
In whole, the technical and clerical errors are up to now recognized to have resulted in 1,739 folks being mistakenly registered to vote, in keeping with the Secretary of State’s workplace, which stated many had been later confirmed to be residents. As of this month, the workplace has decided that solely 30 of these folks voted in an election.
The Secretary of State’s elections division investigated the 30 circumstances, in keeping with the workplace’s webpage on the DMV automated voter registration errors. Eight circumstances had been closed, 19 are nonetheless beneath lively investigation by the workplace and three had been referred to the Oregon Division of Justice for additional investigation.
Many of the clerical errors stemmed from a drop-down menu choice within the DMV’s laptop system that workers used when coming into private data, in keeping with authorities.
“None of these people intended to register, represented themselves as eligible to vote, or made any claim to U.S. citizenship. We are sorry for the error and want to be clear that the people mistakenly registered bear no responsibility for it,” the Secretary of State’s webpage says.
The DMV has been reviewing data and issuing month-to-month studies because the errors had been revealed final fall. The errors occurred partly as a result of Oregon permits some residents who aren’t residents to acquire driver’s licenses, and the state’s so-called “Motor Voter” regulation mechanically registers most individuals to vote after they search a brand new license or ID.
The DMV will proceed sampling Motor Voter information on a month-to-month foundation by 2025. Each the division and the Secretary of State’s workplace say they’ve put new controls in place to stop the error from occurring.
The DMV resumed automated voter registrations in February after Gov. Tina Kotek had ordered a pause due to the errors.
