Oregon removes over 1,200 voters from rolls who registered without proof of U.S. citizenship

Oregon removed more than 1,200 voters from state voter rolls who were registered to vote without proof of U.S. citizenship due to errors made by the motor vehicles department.

The Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division and the Oregon Secretary of State identified 1,259 people in the state who were registered to vote without providing proof of citizenship due to an error between the DMV and the Elections Division of the secretary of state's office. Of the 1,259 voter registrations, 953 were removed on Monday, while 306 were inactivated earlier this month, according to the secretary of state's office.

There were nine ineligible voters who had cast ballots.

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

The secretary of state's office notified the 1,259 inactivated voters that they can re-register to vote if they are eligible by Oct. 15.

The error occurred with Oregon's automatic voter registration system. The DMV transfers customers' data to the secretary of state's office's Elections Division if they have provided proof of U.S. citizenship. Once the Elections Division receives the data, the customers are registered to vote.

Some voters were registered when the DMV incorrectly selected U.S. birth certificates and passports as documents that the customers had provided, rather than foreign birth certificates and passports.

The DMV has implemented new procedures to ensure these errors don't continue. Staff will be required to enter the county and state for all U.S. birth certificates; follow a prompt to confirm that U.S. passports are the correct document selected; verify that documents are correctly entered into the system; and reorder the database drop-down menu alphabetically so U.S. passport is not the first document to choose from.