Oregon DMV admits to finding hundreds more ineligible voters it registered on top of the 1,259 non-citizens registered

Of the 302 new names, 123 people were incorrectly registered; one person was found when he sought an Oregon driver's license, and 178 others were born in American Samoa but not US citizens.

Being born in a US territory does not automatically mean you have US citizenship. Although the Oregon Department of Transport (ODOT) told the Willamette Week that “birth documents issued by the U.S. Territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands are acceptable as proof of U.S. citizenship,” that is not actually true. “Persons born in American Samoa and Swains Island [part of American Samoa] are generally considered nationals but not citizens of the United States,” according to the US Custom and Immigration Services.

ODOT spokesman Kevin Glenn acknowledged the error in an email to the media outlet: “DMV was not aware of this issue and we appreciate you bringing it to our attention. From what we understand at this time, residents of American Samoa can have a U.S. passport but are not eligible to vote in some elections. We will include this in our continued data integrity analysis and will provide updates.”

As part of DMV’s after-action report, DMV administrator Amy Joyce apologized for the misunderstanding. “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,” Joyce said. “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.”

The state’s top elections officer, Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade, said she does not believe the newly found errors will affect the voting outcome.

“Thanks to the swift action of elections officials, I have full confidence that these new errors will not impact the 2024 election,” Griffin-Valade said. Her agency posted an FAQ page with more details about the situation.

Gov. Tina Kotek (D-OR) said the DMV transgression prompted her to temporarily stop automatic voter registration on Sept. 30 and demand an external audit of the program. Kotek has tasked the Department of Administrative Services to hire an independent auditing firm, which Kotek said will also define what the review decides to evaluate.

“Any error that undermines our voting system must be taken incredibly seriously and addressed,” Kotek said. “Given the findings in the Oregon DMV’s After-Action Report, an immediate, external audit of the Oregon Motor Voter program and a pause to data transmission between the Oregon DMV and SoS are imperative steps to ensuring the program can operate with integrity and accuracy into the future.”