The Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicle Services (DMV) and the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office both confirmed that the DMV has mistakenly registered more than 300 non-U.S. citizens to vote since 2021.
Officials with the Oregon Department of Transportation said on Sept. 14 that a data entry problem occurred when people who were not citizens applied for driver’s licenses.
An initial analysis by the Oregon Department of Transportation, which oversees the state’s DMV, revealed that 306 noncitizens were registered to vote, according to Kevin Glenn, a department spokesperson. Of those, two voted in elections since 2021.
“It’s basically a data entry issue,” Glenn said, explaining that when a DMV worker enters information about a person applying for a driver’s license or state ID, the worker can incorrectly code that the person has a U.S. birth certificate or passport when that person does not.
Responding to the report, the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office said in a statement that Secretary LaVonne Griffin-Valade has ordered an update to 0.01 percent of voter registrations.
“Residents impacted by this issue were noncitizens at the time they were erroneously registered. They will be notified by mail that they will not receive a ballot unless they demonstrate that they are eligible to vote,” her office stated, noting that only two people who were registered to vote have a voting history but that their citizenship status when they cast ballots is not known.
Her office “moved quickly to update the voter rolls,” Griffin-Valade said, noting that the DMV has to “take immediate action” to make sure noncitizens can’t vote.
“Automatic voter registration has been hugely beneficial for thousands of eligible Oregon voters to ensure access to our democracy,” the secretary said in her statement. “I’m confident the DMV is rectifying this error and improving their process, so it doesn’t happen again.”
The mistake occurred in part because Oregon has allowed noncitizens to obtain driver’s licenses for the past several years, and the DMV automatically registers most people to vote when they obtain a license or other ID, according to Glenn.
A 2019 bill that was passed in the state Legislature allowed people in Oregon to get driver’s licenses without showing proof of citizenship. The law went into effect in 2021.
The administrator for the DMV, Amy Joyce, told The Oregonian that her office is trying to check for possible errors involving any other noncitizens and allowing them to vote.
State and federal laws prohibit non-U.S. citizens from voting in any elections.
Several state and federal lawmakers in Oregon called for further investigations after the issue was revealed.
State Rep. Janelle Bynum, a Democrat, said the U.S. Department of Justice should get involved and probe the issue.
“Any errors in this process are unacceptable, and the office of the Secretary of State must be held responsible for any such lapses. I will relentlessly defend our laws and safeguard the integrity of our elections,” she told the Oregon Capital Chronicle.
U.S. House Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.) also called for an investigation, telling the paper that the DMV engaged in “total malpractice.”
“I am calling on the state to act quickly to remove these individuals from the rolls, conduct a full and transparent investigation into how this occurred, and provide concrete steps they are taking to remedy this issue and prevent it from happening again,” she said.
“However, I want to emphasize that this was a bureaucratic error by the Oregon DMV and not a systemic attempt to cheat the system by organizations or individuals.”
In recent weeks, other states have announced purges to voter rolls.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said that a recent review found that 597 people were registered to vote despite not being U.S. citizens.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced earlier this year that reviews showed that more than 6,500 possible noncitizens were removed from state voter rolls. More than 1,900 of those people had a history of voting, his office said.
Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times’ news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California’s Central Valley.
Reprinted with Permission from The Epoch Times – By Jack Phillips
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
“…[T]his was a bureaucratic error…”
Is that a euphemism for “the dog ate my homework”? In other words, is there no one checking documentation for each and every driver’s license application? If a handful of states have found “errors”, is it not likely that all states might have erroneously registered non-citizen voters? How many blue states are checking their voter registration rolls? If that adds up just to a few electoral votes, it could determine the outcome of the election.
Lastly, certain states currently allow non-citizens to vote for local offices. I imagine it wouldn’t take much effort to let them vote in federal elections, too.
If Oregon is AWARE of the MISTAKE that NON CITIZENS were granted the right to vote, then REMOVE the NON CITIZENS from the DOE (Department of Elections) rolls IMMEDIATELY!!!
It’s not a mistake. This is getting old. Either they are lying, or they are the stupidest people on the planet with all the mistakes they made.
So, if they are identified, remove the names from the voter registry.
MISTAKENLY!!?? I don’t think so.
oregon voters did not want illegal aliens to get drivers lic. voted it down twice.
wanna bet they don’t buy insurance?
Trying to see some humor in this Department of Motor Vehicles acting as Voter Registration The words strange,unusual, inappropriate come to mind . Someone, or some group of people , connected with Motor Vehicle registration many years ago thought this would be a good idea ,to automatically register people to vote when they get a license to drive. So mistakes happen, sure enough they do, and the result is as the article describes ,which is a backwards way of doing things. Not good to have a policy that does this sort of stuff and regards it as something to be expected. This not something new either . Responsible people in state gov. offices should discontinue this practice . There is nothing at all humorous about the criminal illegal alien element getting documents that can enable them to perpetrate crimes and put National Security in jeopardy. So let’s all be real intelligent about this matter ,and see it as a mistake that needs to be corrected by making sure that citizens only can obtain a license to drive and be able to vote.
Oh yes, you bet we believe this alright NOT. While you’re at it Oregon do a check and pull out all the thousands of non-citizen, non-eligible but registered to vote and probably did vote.
I don’t think the “Peoples’ Republic of Oregon” mistakenly did ANYTHING. Like all Marxist DIMMs, the law means nothing to them!
One of the very few prerequisites of US citizenship is “PROFICIENCY IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE” so wouldn’t it almost cull every one of these illegal jackass illegals !!
Which makes you wonder why we have ballots printed in ANY LANGUAGE
BUT ENGLISH !!
“. . . DMV mistakenly registered 306 noncitizens to vote . . . . ” To me “mistakenly” means “oops”. This was NOT “oops” NAIL THOSE CORRUPTED OFFICIALS WHO ALLOWED THIS TRAVESTEY OF LAW TO OCCUR = THE OFFICIALS ARE FAULTY!
Wow, just like California to allow illegals to obtain a drivers license. Gee, do they also check for insurance so when an illegal kills some one in an accident their covered. Like sh@@ hole state California accident my rear end. Make a difference vote all communist/Democrats out of office and send them to China.
In Pennsylvania when you get a driver’s license, they automatically register you to vote. Don’t care whether you are a citizen or not. How many illegals does Pa have on voter rolls? Gov. Shapero said it was a good idea so all could easily be registered. Really, the only way to keep a blue state blue as more CITIZENS in Pa a changing their registration to Republican.
I live in Oregon. I called the Oregon State Dept of Elections last Friday and asked if OR issues illegals driver’s licenses, how do they keep illegals from voting? Her answer: “Did you call the DMV?” Seriously. In OR people who get Driver’s licenses are AUTOMATICALLY registered to vote! So, an illegal gets a license, then goes ONLINE to register to vote, using the DL as the ID required. Bingo-registered voter. I told the lady this and she was quiet. I then said, so basically the state of Oregon is assuming people will be honest? She agreed with me!!! I’m betting this is going on all over the country and it isn’t just “a few”. That 306 was just in ONE county, Lane County. Some journalist who has ethics should REALLY do a story on this!
This being Oregon I’d say is pretty good only 306
No- motor- voter is a colossal fail. If you cannot figure out how to register to vote perhaps you are not bright enough to be casting a vote. I do not believe that this was erroneous data entry. Let’s do away with motor- voter in every state.
“Basically a clerical error” is not an excuse to be considered acceptable. NYS allows the undocumented to get drivers licenses too called the “regular license “ and I don’t understand why that license application would include the voter registration section on the application. Only those who have upgraded their license should have that option on their application, especially since they have to provide proof of identification that a non-citizen would never provide and that drivers license can only be issued to a citizen not a non citizen. So using that excuse “clerical error “ is nonsense
It wasn’t a mistake.
“Mistakenly”? I really find that hard to believe. How do we find such careless people? Now that is discovered has the mistakes been corrected?
In California you go online, fill out an application for a drivers license or ID card. Then up pops a screen to register to vote. It reads the qualifications to register for voting then there is a box where you check whether or not you are a legal citizen. There is no checking on you to see if you are legal or not. Pretty sure if they are going to sneak in illegally that they are not going to be honest about their citizenship.
I was at our country office and there was a person I knew that wasn’t a legal citizen registering to vote. They asked for ID and he gave them a piece of paper that showed he was baptized, no legal seals on it and they took it. I was trying to get a passport and they wouldn’t issue it to me because the seal on my birthday certificate had worn down some. Needless to say I was livid over it.
Mistakenly or INTENTIONALLY ???????
What makes anyone think this was a “mistake”?
Thats ridiculous! Maybe don’t give them drivers licenses and you won’t have this problem. Mistake my great aunt Fanny. Dishonest public officials who make these “mistakes “ should be fired immediately and prosecuted for treason.
Its not just the DMV, people! The EBT/SNAP Food Stamps Program does much the same thing. On one of the pages of the forms you fill out they ask if you want them to register you to vote. In fairness the paperwork says you have to be a Citizen to vote but you don’t have to be one to get the EBT in the first place and they have signs listing the languages they can get someone to converse with you in. There would certainly be more money for the actual U.S. Citizens enrolled in it if they weren’t accepting virtually anybody! How many of these non-English speakers are legal?
Yeah. “Mistakenly” sent… WINK WINK
I like that…”mistakenly registered.” LOL That’s rich. I’m willing to bet that it wasn’t a mistake that it was done deliberately by an employee trying to bolster the roles for kacklin’ kammy. Those people need to be contacted and told they can’t vote and their names need to be flagged on the roles in case they try to vote. If they try to vote, they must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law because they were told they were not eligible to vote.
I’m so sick of the damn garbage. VOTER ID IS A MUST! Anyone against voter ID is just up to no good. This is a no-brainer and should be required without hesitation.
Mistaken that they got CAUGHT! Their names are known, so have a brain fart and REMOVE them from the voter roles. What a complicated solution to an ongoing problem in state like this!
Driver licensing … here in Arizona, you can tell the uninsured, (having auto insurance is a state law) by those driving the speed limit. I can safely say, that in my experience, as I pass by indignantly the ‘slow’ driver … most are Mexican / foreign nationalities. I doubt very seriously, having crossed the border illegally, that they are merely driving the speed limit, as they don’t want to break our laws. They are driving the speed limit, so as to not have a reason to get pulled over to find they don’t have auto insurance.
Now while Arizona, as far as I am aware … does require you to register to vote, the only identification asked for at the voting booth, is a drivers license … not once have I been asked for my voter registration card (though I have been carrying it since 1973.). So illegals, are getting drivers licenses … are they voting with those licenses? I can only hope that answer is no.
No accident. They were just caught. WA issues licenses to illegal aliens too. No proof of legality needed.
The US government HAD MANY CHANCES TO ADDRESS / RECTIFY IMMIGRATION policy at least 25 or more years ago. HUGE FAILURE!!!!