Oregon DMV Mistake Added 118 More Non-Citizens to Voter Rolls with At Least 13 Casting Ballots in Elections

Over 1,700 non-citizens may have been erroneously registered in Oregon to vote in the presidential election last year, but the DMV estimated on Friday that at least 13 of these individuals could and did vote in at least one election.

 

Non-Citizens Voting In Oregon

In yesterday’s report, the DMV admitted it mistakenly allowed 118 people who were almost certainly non-citizens to register to vote, taking the total of non-citizen voters to 1,700 after lax processing and human error added hundreds of Oregon non-citizens to the voters roll.

Tidings Data Snapshot
Oregon DMV Motor Voter Review – Key Numbers
1,739
Total suspected noncitizen registrations identified
118
New cases added in latest DMV report
111
New cases tied to older DMV system (2010-2020)
30
People known to have voted among flagged registrations
Oct 2024
Automatic DMV registration paused, later resumed with safeguards

Source: Oregon DMV and Secretary of State updates reported by AP (Feb 28 and Apr 2025)
Dailytidings.com

The DMV noticed the error after116 after the people it had registered to vote subsequently showed the agency proof of identity, such as a foreign passport or a green card, which confirmed they were not citizens.

While most errors occurred last year, the DMV has since implemented new guardrails on its automatic voter registration system, correcting the error.

However, one error occurred after the new protocols were implemented, and the DMV indicated that at least 13 of these non-citizens voted in at least one election.

Tidings Data Snapshot
Status of Oregon Cases Where Voting Is Confirmed
Closed – 8 cases
Under review – 19 cases
Referred to DOJ – 3 cases
Based on 30 known voting cases linked to DMV registration errors.

Source: Oregon Secretary of State and DMV case updates reported by AP (Apr 2025)
Dailytidings.com

The steps taken to rectify the incorrect registration of non-citizens on the voter roll in Oregon include:

FixWhat it targets
Required entry of state and county for U.S. birth certificatesReduces document miscoding
End-of-day manager verification of document entriesCatches staff input errors
Monthly random sample reviews of AVR recordsOngoing system quality control
Daily check-ins with the Secretary of StateFaster cross-agency error detection
County clerks ensuring flagged noncitizens do not receive ballotsPrevents future ballot issuance

 

Four Oregon House Republicans responded to the report by announcing plans to introduce legislation to reassign automatic voter registration from the DMV to the secretary of state as early as next week. However, the bill would likely face opposition from Democrats.

Tidings Timeline
  • 2016 – Oregon launches Motor Voter automatic registration.
  • 2019-2021 – Noncitizen driver license changes complicate AVR screening.
  • Oct 2024 – Kotek pauses DMV automatic registrations.
  • Feb 2025 – DMV resumes AVR with new safeguards.
  • Apr 2025 – DMV reports 118 more cases, total now 1,739.
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  1. Melissa Blanchard says

    ALL people registering to vote should ONLY be able to do it at their LOCAL COUNTY CLERK’S office. After all, that’s who is supposed to do it. That’s their job!
    At age 62, I have NEVER had a problem registering to vote each time I moved to a new county or state. I’ve even taken my birth certificate, DL and previous voters ID in with me and made sure they verified everything! If I can do it, everyone can!

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