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, the 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.
This is just within Oregon.
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….
Election integrity has enormous support with the public—83%—and almost every Democrat voted against the legislation.
Their counterargument is that the legislation (which is unlikely to pass in the Senate due to needing 60 votes) would make it difficult for women who’ve changed their names or for rural voters to prove citizenship. The legislation allows states to accommodate name changes however they wish; it’s more difficult to ascertain how rural citizens might need to provide citizenship and whether this would be onerous. The bill places no burden on existing voters.