(Headline USA) The Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles admitted last week that it has wrongfully registered at least 300 noncitizens to vote in U.S. elections since 2021.
The registrations were the result of a program that automatically registered anyone who obtained a driver’s license or state ID, state officials said. Oregon has let noncitizens obtain driver’s licenses since 2019.
Though they have, thus far, identified 300 noncitizens who were registered in this way, officials said they expected to find more wrongful registrations before Election Day. At least two of the noncitizens identified have cast ballots in an election, officials admitted.
The 300+ noncitizens “will be notified by mail that they will not receive a ballot unless they demonstrate that they are eligible to vote,” said Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin–Valade.
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek defended the state’s automatic voter-registration program, arguing the discovery will “not impact” the upcoming election.
“The error in data entry which may have affected the voter eligibility of some Oregonian’s voter registration was discovered because the Oregon DMV and the secretary of state were doing their due diligence ahead of the 2024 election,” Kotek claimed in a statement.
“My office will continue to closely monitor the situation,” she continued. “This situation will not impact the 2024 election in any way.”
Oregon Republicans, however, blasted state Democratic leaders for opening the state’s election system to potential fraud.
To ensure the integrity of Oregon’s election in November, Kotek should immediately take action to clean the state’s voter rolls, just as Ohio and Virginia have done over the past several months, said Oregon Senate Republican Minority Leader Daniel Bonham.
“This is a deeply troubling development, and I fear it could be just the tip of the iceberg,” Bonham wrote in a letter to Kotek’s office.
“If such errors are occurring, it calls into question the accuracy of our voter rolls and the security of our elections,” he added. “The integrity of the entire system could be at risk if we fail to act now to prevent further issues.”
While Democrats and their leftist media allies have routinely tried to downplay the issue, the automatic issuance of mail-in ballots to ineligible voters is believed to play a significant role in the irregularities that the 2020 and 2022 election cycles exposed, particularly in swing states where the margins are much more narrow than Oregon.
Despite the concerns, Democrats in the Senate are refusing to take up the SAVE Act, a bill that would close many such election loopholes and ensure universal ballot integrity.
