Gov. Tina Kotek has called for a pause on automatically registering voters through the state鈥檚 Motor Voter law, but that doesn鈥檛 mean a person can鈥檛 still register to vote.
The deadline to is October 15.
Earlier this week, the state announced it had unearthed hundreds more people than previously known who were improperly registered to vote under the state鈥檚 Motor Voter law.
The latest tally includes 302 people identified on Monday, according to an 鈥渁fter-action鈥� report ordered by Gov. Tina Kotek. who officials with the state鈥檚 Driver and Motor Vehicle Services office and Secretary of State had earlier revealed were registered in error.
Kotek has called on the DMV to pause the process of automatically registering drivers to vote through the state鈥檚 Motor Voter law. She also asked for an external audit. Republicans have taken to the issue 鈥� which fits into a broader national narrative pushed by former President Donald Trump of widespread voter fraud 鈥� and demanded a fuller examination of the state鈥檚 more than 3 million voters.
Pausing the Motor Voter program will have no effect on the upcoming election, according to information from the Oregon Secretary of State鈥檚 office. There is always a cut off point at which automatic registrations cannot be processed before an election, according to Laura Kerns, with the secretary of state鈥檚 office. That cutoff date is always 42 days before an election, so this year it was near the end of September.
Under Oregon鈥檚 2016 Motor Voter law, people who obtain or renew a driver鈥檚 license are automatically registered to vote if they submit proof of U.S. citizenship. Drivers can choose to opt out of the system.
Oregon now says that a poorly laid out dropdown menu in a DMV computer program led workers to mistakenly indicate that noncitizens had presented U.S. passports or birth certificates when they had not.
But the state discovered a new error: Another 178 people from the U.S. territories of American Samoa and Swains Island have been wrongly classified as U.S. citizens.
The secretary of state鈥檚 office said officials are still reviewing whether any of those people actually voted.
Kotek initially reacted to the motor voter errors last month by ordering an after-action report and directing the DMV to pursue an outside audit of its data handling practices. The agency has said it put new safeguards into place to ensure no noncitizens were being registered.
Monday鈥檚 acknowledgment of hundreds of additional errant registrations calls into question just how deeply DMV examined the issue.
The agency has said it began looking into the accuracy of its automatic voter registration process after it received an inquiry in late July.
Republicans, whose questions about the state鈥檚 vote-by-mail system increased after the 2020 presidential election, are requesting the secretary of state cast a broader audit.
鈥淪he only looked at a small portion of voters registered at the DMV since 2021 and continues to insist that voter fraud is 鈥榚xtremely rare,鈥欌�� reads a statement from Angela Plowhead, the party鈥檚 vice chair. 鈥淭his small sample highlights how widespread inaccuracies in Oregon鈥檚 voter rolls are. The urgent need for an independent full and complete audit of the voter rolls is critical to ensure transparency and to reassure Oregonians that our elections are fair and free of fraud.鈥�
This story comes from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
Copyright 2024 Oregon Public Broadcasting
