About 1,600 people without proof of citizenship were registered before the system was paused.
The Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) resumed automatic voter registrations on Feb. 27, saying it had strengthened the system to prevent the registration of noncitizens.
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek in October 2024 ordered a pause of the process after an audit
discovered some individuals were automatically registered to vote despite not providing proof of U.S. citizenship. Officials later disclosed they'd identified additional individuals, taking the total to about 1,600.
The DMV said it has strengthened its system to minimize the risk of more noncitizens and others who have not provided proof of citizenship being registered. This includes hiring a voter registration integrity analyst and modifying the internal interface, which the agency says will reduce the likelihood of DMV staff selecting the wrong option.
Since the pause was imposed, the DMV has sampled new records and manually compared them with information collected from customers. The DMV said that no new mistaken registrations have been found so far.
“We believe these enhanced processes and permanent system changes, along with DMV’s observations and measurements regarding their effectiveness, provide adequate confidence that data integrity ... is sufficient to reinstitute the process,” Deloitte, which the governor hired to review the system,
said in a report.
“As a partner to Oregon’s Secretary of State, Oregon DMV is proud of the role it plays in helping U.S. citizens engage in our elections,” Oregon DMV Administrator Amy Joyce
said in a statement. “We will continue our work to ensure the Oregon Motor Voter process is more secure and reliable than ever.”
The Oregon Secretary of State’s Office is also trying to prevent noncitizen voter registration.
The office said it has added more steps, including a daily confirmation step.
“The new protections we are adding today will help us catch and fix government data entry errors faster. These are first steps, focused on getting the fundamentals right. 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,” Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read
said in a statement.
Automatic voter registration, with an opt-out, is required by state law for all Oregon residents aged 16 and older. The DMV collects the residents’ information and sends it to the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office.
Officials say the system erroneously registered 1,619 people, some of whom were noncitizens, even though the people never proved citizenship.
“Since the error was discovered, many have confirmed their citizenship,” the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office
says on its website.
Seventeen of the people voted in an election. The Oregon Secretary of State’s Office is still actively investigating six of the cases. It referred three others to the Oregon Department of Justice and closed the rest.
