Audit Finds Oregon’s DMV Voter Errors Too Small to Sway Elections but Points to System Flaws

An independent audit into Oregon’s DMV program which automatically registers motor vehicle owners as voters has found that the number of potentially ineligible registered individuals is too small to affect the outcome of an election.

Audit Ordered After Errors in the System Were Uncovered

The audit was ordered by Governor Tina Kotek and Secretary of State Tobias Read following errors in the system that erroneously registered non-citizens as voters.

The audit found that state officials took corrective measures after discovering that the DMV had entered the names of more than 1,600 potential non-citizens into its database, effectively giving them the right to vote.

The registrations took place when the individuals applied for Identification Documents or a driver’s license.

An investigation uncovered flaws in the DMV system. These were then addressed by officials. It was then discovered that only 17 of those individuals had a voting history, and that several of them had voted legally after attaining citizenship before last November’s election.

However, the state later discovered that 118 people had been registered erroneously before to 2024.

The audit points to moderate risks in the DMV program – lack of oversight from the office of the Secretary of State, inadequate processes to keep track of current federal legislation, insufficient worker training records for handling and entering information into the database, and a lack of regular program evaluations.

Sufficient Safeguards to Ensure Voter Registration Authenticity

The audit found that the biggest risk facing Oregon’s motor voter registration program is its reliance on outdated citizenship records. However, it also found that the state has installed sufficient safeguards to ensure the authenticity of voter registration data.

The Secretary of State, Tobias Read, says several additional safeguards have been built into the DMV voter registration program.

This includes that all U.S. birth certificates must stipulate a state and county, and departmental managers must verify that identification documents match data entries at the end of each working day.