Oregon DMV Debacle : Registering Non Citizens To VOTE

The first rumblings of the DMV mistakenly registering non citizens to vote started with a report of discovering that through a data entry error 306 non citizens were registered to vote.

Governor Kotek claimed, “The error in data entry which may have affected the voter eligibility of some Oregonians voter registration was discovered because the Oregon DMV and the secretary of state were doing their due diligence ahead of the 2024 election.”

The thing that Oregon voters had been concerned about for years and had been labeled a “conspiracy theory” had become fact.

Non citizens gaining the ability to apply for driver’s licenses in Oregon has a long history. It has been a tug of war between what Oregonians have wanted and what the Oregon legislature ultimately passed.

In the 2019 Oregon Legislative session, HB 2015 was passed. This allowed for non citizens to get driver’s licenses in Oregon. In Oregon the DMV is intimately involved in voter resgitration as it is an agency that has the authority to automatically register voters when people apply for driver’s licenses.

As the DMV began auditing their records after the initial find of 306 non citizens. Oregon House Minority Leader Jeff Helfrich called for a meeting of the House Rules Committee. Asking for an audience with the DMV,and officials from the Secretary of State’s office.

By September, 23rd as reported by the Oregonian the number of non citizens found registered to vote had grown to 1,251. That same week The House Committee on Rules met with DMV officials and staff from the Secretary of State’s office. What transpired in the meeting was revealing. Particularly when Representative Jeff Helfrich and Representative Kim Wallan asked questions.

During Rep. Jeff Helfrich’s questions it is discovered that the DMV was not the organization that discovered the errors. It was actually pointed out by an outside agency. Which is not what Governor Kotek said. The timeline for the original report of this information to the DMV happened on August 1st and the information did not get to the acting Secretary of State until Sept. 12 and then Governor Kotek knew on Sept. 13th.

When Representative Kim Wallan questioned the DMV officials in the meeting she wanted to know why her questions of concern in the past had not been answered.She stated that she and other Oregon Representatives had asked if records were monitored and audited for mistakes and the DMV had always passed over answering. Now the questions that Representative Wallan and others had asked did not seem so crazy.

Within a week of the hearing an additional 300 non citizens were found on the voter rolls and Governor Kotek as well as the Secretary of State called for an audit of all records and a pause on automatic voter registration.

Now there is a call for an audit but do Oregonians trust the process? How do we move forward in Oregon with more transparency in the voter registration process?