Oregon Registers Over 300 Non-Citizens to Vote
FAIR Take | September 2024
Oregon’s Driver and Motor Vehicle Services (DMV) has admitted to wrongfully registering over 300 non-citizens to vote since 2021. The discovery is now causing concerns that the state’s elections could be skewed by illegal immigration. While local leaders say the gaffe is attributed to a “data entry error,” the interplay between Oregon’s “motor voter” law and its subsequent driver’s license law lies at the heart of the problem.
Oregon’s Election Director, Molly Woon, discovered the registration of non-citizens on September 12. According to Ms. Woon, DMV personnel incorrectly entered the data and sent the unverified information to the Elections Division. Although Ms. Woon states that “this will not impact the 2024 election,” and is hopeful that the process will be quick, county clerks have begun auditing the states’ files, which may take some time. DMV Administrator Amy Joyce confessed that the internal review may discover more instances in which non-citizens successfully registered to vote.
Over the past several years, Oregon has passed two bills that significantly increase the risk that illegal aliens will be registered to vote in Oregon. In 2016, Oregon passed House Bill 2177, making it the first state to automatically register citizens to vote when they apply for a driver’s license or ID at the state DMV. In 2019, the Oregon Legislature passed HB 2015, entitled Driver Licenses for All, allowing all residents of Oregon to obtain a license regardless of their immigration status. Allowing non-citizens to get driver’s licenses, coupled with the automatic voter registration at the state DMV has greatly increased the risk of registering illegal aliens and other non-citizens to vote.
After the discovery that Oregon had indeed registered non-citizens to vote, state leaders have downplayed the error. Kevin Glenn, a spokesperson for Oregon’s Department of Transportation, reported that, of the 306 known non-citizens registered to vote, only two have cast ballots since 2021. Local leaders contend it was a simple data entry mistake. Oregon’s Secretary of State, which has jurisdiction over election integrity, says the mistake is “regrettable” and claims that those erroneously registered “will be notified by mail that they will not receive a ballot unless they demonstrate that they are eligible to vote.” Meanwhile, the Secretary stands by Oregon’s motor voter law, stating that, “Automatic voter registration has been hugely beneficial for thousands of eligible Oregon voters to ensure access to our democracy.”
This “access” to democracy is under major scrutiny, and has been for some time. When Oregon’s motor voter law was initially passed, DMV spokesperson David House confidently stated “there is no risk people without proof of citizenship or legal residency will get registered to vote by obtaining a driver’s license.” Five years later, it is clear that this is not the case, and the problem may be worse than initially thought.
Some officials believe that an audit alone of the recent “data entry mistake” will not suffice. State Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-39) has called on the Attorney General to “launch a full-scale investigation into the allegations of registering non-citizens.” State Rep. Daniel Bonham (R-26) believes Oregon’s voter mishap could be compounded, “This is a deeply troubling development, and I fear it could be just the tip of the iceberg. If such errors are occurring, it calls into question the accuracy of our voter rolls and the security of our elections. The integrity of our entire system could be at risk if we fail to act now to prevent further issues.”
The problem of non-citizens being registered to vote is not isolated to Oregon. Recent reports indicate similar issues in other states. This includes Virginia, where over 6,000 non-citizens were found on voter rolls, and Arizona, where nearly 200 non-citizens were identified on voter rolls this year.
While it is fortunate that Oregon’s DMV caught its error, the routine cleaning of voter rolls would ensure that any non-citizens registered to vote, whether purposefully or inadvertently, are removed. This regular review of voter rolls is even more imperative when a state grants driver’s licenses to non-citizens and has automatic voter registration, increasing the risk that noncitizens will be registered to vote.