DMV Errors Prompt Questions of Election Integrity

Last month, the Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division announced an error that resulted in 1,561 people being improperly registered to vote without proving citizenship. Following this discovery, the Oregon Secretary of State conducted a deeper investigation into the error and took steps to ensure it won’t affect the election.

Out of the people improperly registered, the SoS identified nine potentially ineligible voters with voting histories. However, Deschutes County Clerk Steve Dennison told the Source Weekly these errors won’t have any effect on the upcoming election.

Some 47 people in Deschutes County were inadvertently registered due to this error, but did not have voting histories, according to Dennison. The individuals are now inactive and will not receive a ballot unless they prove citizenship.

Oregon’s Motor Voter Act, which went into effect in 2016, makes voter registration automatic, eliminating the need to fill out the voter registration card for those who qualify at the DMV.

When people register to vote under Oregon’s Motor Voter system, the DMV is required to transfer the data of customers who show proof of citizenship to the SoS Elections Division. According to reports, the error was likely due to staff inadvertently selecting the “U.S. Passport” option in the database, when a document was, in fact, a foreign passport.

The Oregon DMV and SoS said in a press release that the error did not impact previous elections and will not impact the upcoming one. To address election integrity, Gov. Tina Kotek ordered further investigation into the error.

“Following round-the-clock corrective action on the part of Oregon DMV to address the known errors and ensure they will not impact the 2024 general election, I am now directing the agency to go above and beyond to ensure errors like this will not happen again,” said Kotek.

This, according to a press release from the Governor’s Office, entails updated training for staff, establishing a data integrity review and the completion of an after-action report. The after-action report found that the error resulted in those 1,561 improperly registered individuals. While the group of individuals will not receive a ballot, they were given the opportunity to re-register if eligible.

“Because of this quick response, I can assure Oregonians that the 2024 General Election will not be affected by this error in any way,” said Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade.

“Noncitizen voting remains exceedingly rare in Oregon and around the country. We can continue to be proud that automatic voter registration is just one of the ways we ensure eligible Oregonians have the opportunity to exercise their right to vote.”

To prevent future errors, the DMV has instituted several actions, including re-sorting the database, to reduce the potential of staff selecting an incorrect document in the menu. Other precautions include requiring staff to enter the state and country for all U.S. birth certificates and the addition of a confirmation prompt.

Locally, those who were inactivated received correspondence in the mail, allowing them to verify whether or not they are a U.S. citizen, said Dennison.

“This is an obviously unfortunate human error that was happening at the DMV, but it kind of gives a black eye for the whole process, which is overall a very sound process and a great thing that registers people to vote automatically,” Dennison said about the Motor Voter law.

Following election concerns prompted by the DMV error, Dennison highlighted another issue that has recently threatened local perception of election integrity – a missing candidate from the Oregon voters’ pamphlet.

A number of social media posts went viral last week, showing videos of the Oregon voter pamphlet and its exclusion of Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and JD Vance. The initial post stated that the Oregon SoS was “interfering with the election,” by removing Trump and Vance from the official website and pamphlet.

Dennison cleared up these claims, stating that the presidential candidate was not in the pamphlet by his own accord, but will remain on the ballot.

“Not all candidates chose to place a statement in the voters’ pamphlet. So, that’s caused a lot of confusion and concern. Every candidate that was filed with the state and with us is on the ballot,” he said.

The incident caused the Oregon Elections Division to close its phone lines on Oct. 17, due to being overwhelmed by out-of-state callers responding to the false information circulating on social media, according to a press release. Dennison confirmed that Deschutes County also received an unusually high number of calls on that topic.

“That’s always our biggest battle, is fighting mis- and disinformation and trying to stay ahead of things and get the messaging out,” he said. “We take election security very serious, and we ensure that every ballot cast is tabulated appropriately.”