Data entry errors at the Oregon Department of Transportation that led to more than 1,700 people being incorrectly registered to vote despite not demonstrating citizenship began years earlier than the department previously acknowledged, according to a new report released Friday. Since November, th e department has released monthly status reports on its ongoing review of errors that led to people who may not be citizens registering to vote through interactions at the Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division. The latest report released Friday found that another 118 people have been wrongly registered to vote. Secretary of State Tobias Read said in a statement that everyone involved in voter registration and elections must catch and fix errors and be accountable to the people of Oregon.  “It’s hard not to be disappointed,” Read said. “Our elections are a chain that stretches between individual voters, through the state, and to county elections officials. That chain is strong and reliable, but we continue to have a weak link that needs more attention, work, and accountability.”  All but one of the newly discovered individuals interacted with the DMV between 2010 and 2023. Most were found by an automated DMV report that flagged whether someone marked as a citizen in records has since provided records that contradict citizenship, such as a permanent resident card.  The other case involved an Oregon resident from American Samoa. People from that territory have U.S. passports but aren’t U.S. citizens and can’t vote in elections other than presidential primaries. County clerks have already inactivated the 118 wrongly registered voters and they won’t receive ballots for local elections in May, according to the Oregon Association of County Clerks. The affected voters will receive letters with instructions on how to permanently cancel or reactivate their voter registration.  Thirteen of those 118 people have voted in one or more elections, the DMV reported. It’s a crime for noncitizens to vote in federal or state elections and people who do so risk prison sentences, fines and deportation. The Secretary of State’s Office is reviewing whether those 13 people were eligible to vote at the time they voted. So far, the office has forwarded the names of three people identified through an earlier review to the Department of Justice for a criminal investigation.  Oregon has automatically registered citizens to vote since 2016 when they obtain or renew their driver’s licenses, permits or nonoperating IDs.  Last fall, prodding from a Chicago-based nonprofit led the department to review that process. Officials found that in hundreds of cases, front-line DMV workers had wrongly coded foreign birth certificates or passports as U.S. birth certificates or passports, meaning people who can’t legally vote in state or federal elections were added to voter rolls. The latest discovery comes as Republicans in the White House, Congress and the Oregon Legislature seek to restrict voting access in the name of election integrity. The U.S. House on Thursday passed a bill that would require states to obtain documents that prove citizenship before allowing anyone to register to vote and that critics warned could make voting more difficult for citizens, including married women who change their names without updating legal documents.  Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield sued President Donald Trump last week over an executive order that would require voters to prove citizenship and ban states including Oregon from counting ballots mailed and postmarked on or before Election Day that arrive a few days later.  Oregonians who submitted legislative testimony last week overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to end mail voting and require photo IDs to vote. Meanwhile, Republican Reps. Vikki Breese-Iverson, Emily McIntire, Greg Smith and Kim Wallan announced Friday that they’ll introduce a bill to assign control of the automatic voter registration system to the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office. Currently, the DMV collects information and forwards it to the Secretary of State’s Office to finish registering voters.  Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Julia Shumway for questions: info@oregoncapitalchronicle.com. Follow Oregon Capital Chronicle on Facebook and Twitter. STORY TIP OR IDEA? Send an email to Salem Reporter’s news team: info@salemreporter.com. The post Oregon voter registration errors began years earlier than DMV officials acknowledged appeared first on Salem Reporter. ...read more read less