Dozens more improperly registered voters found in latest review of Oregon DMV error

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – A second review of records within the Oregon DMV has revealed dozens more voters who were mistakenly registered to vote, the Oregon Department of Transportation announced Friday.

A re-review of 130,000 records discovered 56 more improperly registered voters who had not proven their citizenship during an automatic registration process conducted by the Oregon DMV, according to ODOT. The latest review was first reported by Oregon Public Broadcasting.

This comes more than a month after the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office first revealed the error in the system impacting 1,259 people. In response, Gov. Tina Kotek joined the secretary of state in calling for an independent Motor Voter audit that found 302 additional ineligible voters.

In total, the state has found 1,617 registered voters who had not provided proof of voter eligibility. Officials have since inactivated all of the impacted voter registrations.

According to the most recent review from ODOT, most of these cases can be attributed to staff selecting the wrong document in the proof-of-citizenship drop down menu — adding that “a large percentage of these (72%) were based on a foreign passport mistakenly coded as a U.S. passport.”

Since the error was first discovered, the DMV has created changes to their registration guidelines, including the requirement for a specific state to be listed when selecting that a person has provided proof of citizenship.

Additionally, Gov. Kotek responded with a list of “proactive steps” such as staff training, a data integrity review, and a “quality control” calendar ahead of Election Day 2024. Eligible voters were given the opportunity to re-register with proof of citizenship.

Of the 56 latest cases to be tracked, none of them had an Oregon voting history, ODOT said.