Beginning today, Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicle Services will resume sending records to the Oregon Secretary of State for automatic voter registration.
The Oregon Motor Voter Act makes voter registration automatic with an opt-out process. Oregonians 16 years and older who apply for or renew a state-issued driver’s license, permit, or ID card -- and provide appropriate documentation proving U.S. citizenship -- have their information sent to Oregon’s Secretary of State.
In October 2024, Governor Kotek directed DMV to temporarily pause the transfer of Oregon Motor Voter records to the Secretary of State. DMV continued to collect and hold records throughout this period. With the pause ended, those records will now also be sent to the Secretary of State.
“Oregon’s electoral system is one of the most secure, effective, and accessible in the nation. Even so, any error that undermines that system or Oregonians’ confidence in that system must be taken incredibly seriously and urgently addressed,” Governor Kotek said. “Last fall I called for a series of actions to address data errors in the Oregon Motor Voter program, which the Oregon DMV has, and will continue, to implement. After reforms at the DMV and multiple months showing a good bill of data health, it is time to restart Oregon’s Motor Voter program.”
Governor Kotek directed DMV to pause Oregon Motor Voter due to the discovery of clerical and policy errors made by DMV that resulted in more than 1,600 people mistakenly being registered to vote.
In reviewing these files, the Secretary of State found that virtually all of these individuals did not vote. Of the roughly 1,600 people mistakenly registered, only 17 voted in any election and many of them were later confirmed to be citizens.
DMV has since put controls and processes in place to minimize the risk of error. Examples include:
- Hiring a Voter Registration Integrity Analyst.
- Instituting a third review at the end of the day in which a manager reviews all files to verify accuracy before the information is sent to the Elections Division of the Secretary of State for automatic voter registration.
- Changing the user interface to make it less likely for DMV staff to select the wrong document, including by separating foreign documents from U.S. documents that prove citizenship onto completely different screens.
Details on all the many improvements can be found in the FAQ.
Since the pause, DMV has monthly sampled new Oregon Motor Voter records and manually reviewed them against information collected from customers to verify accuracy and correct any errors. DMV publishes the information in a monthly report. No new mistaken registrations have been found in the Oregon Motor Voter file in transactions that have taken place since controls were put in place in October 2024. DMV will continue to sample Oregon Motor Voter data monthly through 2025.
Governor Kotek directed ODOT to initiate a data integrity review of DMV. ODOT hired Deloitte to conduct this review. The Deloitte report states this: “We believe these enhanced processes, along with DMV’s observations and measurements regarding their effectiveness, provide adequate confidence that data integrity within OLIVR (Oregon License Issuance and Vehicle Registration) is sufficient to reinstitute the process of Oregon Motor Voter data transfers to the Secretary of State. Our view is qualified on the condition that DMV sustains these measures and continues to validate the data files (composed of data exported from OLIVR) transmitted to the Secretary of State for completeness, accuracy, and timeliness.”
“As a partner to Oregon’s Secretary of State, Oregon DMV is proud of the role it plays in helping U.S. citizens engage in our elections,” said Amy Joyce, DMV administrator. “We will continue our work to ensure the Oregon Motor Voter process is more secure and reliable than ever.”
Source: Oregon DMV