Oregon removes over 1,200 voter names from rolls over failure to prove citizenship

Oregon election officials removed over 1,200 people from the state's voter rolls who were registered to vote without having provided proof of citizenship, officials said Monday. This follows the scandal unveiled by the state's DMV earlier this month that revealed the government agency had been illegally registering noncitizens to vote when they had applied for state driver's licenses or identification cards.

Secretary of state LaVonne Griffin-Valade's office issued letters to the 1,259 individuals who were improperly enrolled to inform them that their registration had been deactivated. They will not be eligible to receive a ballot for the 2024 election unless they reregister with documentation that verifies their US citizenship, the AP reported. The state's deadline to register to vote is Oct. 15.

Of those who were found to be ineligible to vote, the Oregon secretary of state's office alleged that only nine of them have voted in elections since 2021. The office's elections director, Molly Woon, said that county clerks are working to determine whether those who failed to provide US citizenship status were noncitizens when they had cast their ballots or just neglected to present required documents.

The error was in part due to progressive legislation known as the "Equal Access to Roads Act" enacted by the state of Oregon in 2019 that permitted illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses and identification cards without providing proof of US citizenship. The state's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) automatically registers the majority of individuals to vote when they apply for the aforementioned cards. Authorities said that the consequential mishap could have been made by DMV employees "accidentally" selecting the wrong code from a drop-down menu, choosing to enter that a noncitizen was a US citizen when that person had actually submitted a foreign passport or birth certificate while applying for state identification.

Ben West, a Clackamas County Commissioner, expressed frustration over the matter and called on the state to conduct "a full forensic audit of Oregon's election process to ensure that every Oregon legal voter can have confidence in their elections."

"It is essential that we protect the integrity of our elections. Our elections must be fair, transparent, timely and secure. However, the loosey-goosey and messy nature of the Oregon voter rolls seems not to be a bug but a feature. The voter registration rolls must be current and accurate," Commissioner West told The Post Millennial in a statement. It is unclear whether the state intends to take action against the individuals under investigation if authorities determine they voted illegally, which is both a state and federal crime.

Elections and transportation officials said that the DMV has implemented measures to resolve the issue. The agency has reportedly rearranged the drop-down menu in alphabetical order to ensure that a US passport is not the initial default option. Additionally, a prompt will be provided for US passports, requesting that DMV personnel verify the document classification. Staff are now obligated to input the state and county of birth if a birth certificate is presented, officials said.

Furthermore, officials added that office managers will now conduct a daily quality check to confirm that the document entries correspond to the scanned document.

On Monday, Gov. Tina Kotek, who claimed to the public that the error "will not impact the 2024 election in any way," called on the DMV to take further measures to enhance election security, such as providing higher-quality training and establishing a data control calendar with the secretary of state, as per the AP. She has also demanded the DMV release a comprehensive report outlining the errors.