Oregon Voter Registration Integrity
Report and Analysis, September 2024
A PDF version of the report can be found here: Oregon Voter Registration Integrity: Report and Analysis.
Executive Summary
There are no official data or reports available to the public on election fraud in Oregon.
Accidental fraud is plausible.
Intentional fraud is feasible.
The OMV program registered at least 1,259 noncitizens to vote since 2021.
The Secretary of State website falsely claimed that citizenship of voters was being verified.
No State may require proof of citizenship in order to register to vote in federal elections.
Background
What is required to add a name to the voter rolls in Oregon?
A name is added to the Oregon voter rolls when it is accompanied by a date of birth, a place of residence, a signature, and an attestation of citizenship. According to the Vote by Mail Procedures Manual from the Oregon Secretary of State, “If a registration card is legible, accurate and contains at a minimum the registrant’s name, residence address, date of birth, signature, and attestation of US citizenship, the county clerk or elections official shall register the individual to vote.” (Vote by Mail Procedures Manual (oregon.gov)) None of the information accompanying the name is required to be verified. “Accurate” is not defined in the manual or in statute.
The place of residence need not be a standard postal address. “A houseless voter’s Oregon residence address may be any place within a county that describes the voter’s physical location. This does not have to be where the voter sleeps, …. It also does not have to be a place with a standard postal address. …These voters may decide to make a county elections office their mailing address and pick up their ballots there.” (Vote by Mail Procedures Manual (oregon.gov))
Federal Elections
The Oregon Voter Registration Card says that an applicant “must provide” a Department of Motor Vehicles number (DMV#), the last four digits of a Social Security number (SS#), or another document showing their address. (SEL500 Oregon Voter Registration Card English) That requirement applies only to federal elections and is a result of the 2002 Help Americans Vote Act (HAVA). (Vote by Mail Procedures Manual (oregon.gov)) When an application meets the minimum criteria for the Oregon voter roll, but does not provide a DMV#, a SS#, or documentation of address, the name is added to the Oregon voter rolls, but the registration entry is marked as ineligible for federal elections. According to the Secretary of State’s Office, ballots mailed to such registrants do not include federal offices. (Phone interview, Secretary of State’s Office.) However, according to Multnomah County, ballots mailed to such registrants are the same as those mailed to other voters but are accompanied by a letter informing the voter that additional information is required if they wish to vote in federal elections. In the event that the ballot is returned without the information required to vote in federal elections, the county clerk’s office creates a copy of the ballot that omits federal races. That copy of the ballot is then submitted to the machine counting system. (Phone interview, Jennifer Wessels, Operation manager, Multnomah county.)
The minimal possible documentation required to be eligible to vote in federal elections appears to be a government document with the same name and address as the application. It is unclear which government documents are acceptable for meeting this requirement.
Oregon Does Not Ensure Only U.S. Citizens are Voting
Despite a false claim to the contrary (see accompanying image) having existed on the Secretary of State’s website at least as early as April 13th, 2024, (State of Oregon: Elections - Frequently Asked Questions (archive.org) April 13, 2024)
Oregon does not require proof of citizenship to register to vote. Nor does Oregon independently confirm the citizenship status of those who it adds to the voter rolls. Neither a DMV# nor a SS# is proof of citizenship as noncitizens can legally acquire both.
In 2024, sometime between Aug 21st and Sept 13th, the Secretary of State website was updated and the answer to the question “How does Oregon ensure only U.S. citizens are voting?” was amended to read: “Only U.S. citizens may vote in Oregon elections. People must verify and attest they are U.S. citizens when registering to vote, and only voters who have registered in Oregon will have their ballot counted. Providing false information when registering to vote is a felony.” (State of Oregon: Elections - Frequently Asked Questions (archive.org)Sept 13, 2024) This update is an improvement as it does not contain false information. However, it still does not answer the question it purports to.
The Oregon Centralized Voter Registration (OCVR) Database/System
When a county election clerk receives a voter registration application, they use the OCVR system to attempt to confirm the information on the application and to update the Oregon voter rolls. When
entering the information contained on a voter registration application into the OCVR, the system returns potential matches of that information to individuals but does not return any information about citizenship status. For applications which use a DMV# or a SS#, if a match is found, then the application is approved. The Oregon DMV omits known noncitizens from the dataset shared with the OCVR. (Email from Megan Lindsey, Issuance Analyst, ODOT-DMV Program Coordination Section. Sep 3, 2024) If an individual known to the DMV to be a noncitizen filed a voter registration application using their DMV#, the OCVR would not return a match, and the application would not be accepted. If a noncitizen whose citizenship status is unknown to the DMV uses their DMV# on a voter registration application, then a match will be found, and the application will be accepted. It is unclear whether the SSA withholds records of individuals known to be noncitizens from the dataset it shares with the OCVR. The SSA did not respond to a request for comment.
Oregon Motor Voter Registration Process (OMV)
When working as intended, the OMV process only automatically registers people who provided documentation of citizenship. “Only an individual with a record of providing documentation to DMV establishing that the individual is a U.S. Citizen will be registered through the Oregon Motor Voter process.” (Oregon-motor-voter-registration-manual-final. pdf) “The Elections Division will only send OMV Cards to people who have provided documentation that they are U.S. citizens.” (State of Oregon: Voting - Oregon Motor Voter Act FAQ)
The following documents are acceptable to the Oregon DMV as proof of citizenship: “US birth certificate, US passport or passport card, US Consular Report of Birth Abroad, U.S. Government-issued Certification of Report of Birth (FS-545 or DS-1350), an Oregon federally recognized Tribal ID card, U.S. Citizen Identification Card (I-179 and I-197), Certificate of Citizenship, or Certificate of Naturalization.” (Email from Megan Lindsey, Issuance Analyst, ODOT-DMV Program Coordination Section. Aug 30, 2024.)
The OMV process does not always work as intended. It was recently discovered that the OMV process had mistakenly registered over 1,259 noncitizens to vote since 2021. The error allegedly occurred because the applicant’s passports were mistakenly labeled as U.S. passports. (Oregon DMV mistakenly registered noncitizens to vote, says secretary of state (katu.com), Oregon DMV mistakenly registered more than 1,200 non-citizens to vote, complete audit finds - oregonlive.com)
Oregon Health Plan Voter Registration Process
HB 2107 from the 2023 regular session is scheduled to go into effect on June 1st, 2026, and will automatically register as voters qualified recipients of the Oregon Health Plan. It includes a provision that only individuals known to be citizens are registered to vote by this process. (HB2107 (oregonlegislature.gov))
Mechanisms for Catching Fraud
The requirements to provide a name and mailing address deters, catches, and prevents some simple fraud. Matching the information provided with a DMV, SSA, or USPS database presumably catches and prevents some fraud.
It is unclear what mechanisms, if any, exist to catch registration fraud by those who either misunderstand the citizenship question or who intend to defraud the registration process with the help of a government document that either belongs to another person or refers to a fictional person. While some fraud tactics might raise the suspicions of a county clerk, it is unclear whether those suspicions could legally trigger additional scrutiny of one or more fraudulent registration applications when those applications meet the minimum criteria.
Once a registration is accepted, the only further check performed before counting a vote associated with that registration is to match the signature on the ballot to the signature used to create the voter registration. Even perfect accuracy of signature verification would not prevent fraud that occurs at the registration level.
Data on Actual Fraud
There are no publicly available data on voter fraud in Oregon. There is no official, publicly available, report on voter fraud in Oregon.
The Multnomah County Elections Division reports that, between 2010 and August 2024, 17 registrations were canceled when it was discovered that the registrants were not citizens. Of those 17, four were confirmed to have previously cast a ballot. It is unclear whether those ballots were counted and contributed to the official results. It is also unclear whether individuals associated with those registrations were ever charged with a crime, convicted, or sentenced. (Email from Kali Odell, Elections District & Candidate Specialist, Multnomah County Elections Division. Sept 11, 2024.)
ANALYSIS
Theory
An election system must balance competing values: the ease of voting by eligible voters, the difficulty of voting by ineligible voters, and overall efficiency or cost. There is a tradeoff in which efforts to reduce illegal voting may make it harder for eligible voters to vote. Based on existing law, the current priority is to enable eligible voters to vote easily, thus avoiding de facto disenfranchisement of eligible voters.
Possibility of Unintentional Voter Registration Fraud
Some noncitizens may believe that they are eligible to vote. Persons who have grown up in the U.S., but were not born here, might even falsely believe that they are citizens. Many noncitizens have documents sufficient to complete a voter registration application. If they attest to being a citizen, their application is likely to be accepted. Such a mistake could easily be made by a person who misinterprets the question about citizenship as referring to residency. Such a mistake could plausibly be made by a person who does not understand English.
Possibility of Intentional Voter Registration Fraud
One option for creating a fraudulent voter registration is to invent a fictional person. This would be easy to do for state elections as none of the information required to vote in Oregon elections is verified.
Defrauding federal elections from Oregon is more difficult. If one can get an Oregon ID card, a bank account, or a government document with the fictitious name, then one can register that fictional person to vote in federal elections. I suspect that it is relatively easy to get a suitable government document by claiming to be homeless and applying for some type of state-provided service. It is unclear exactly which government documents are acceptable for purposes of voter registration. For that reason, it is impossible to know the minimum requirements to acquire a suitable government document. It is conceivable that a person could acquire a suitable document with a fictional name simply by claiming to have that name.
Another way to defraud the voter registration process is to use real government documents associated with real persons, but to do so without their knowledge or against their will. For instance, one might obtain a suitable government document pertaining to another person and submit a voter registration application under that person’s name. The fraudster could acquire the fraudulent ballot by listing their own address on the application, listing the address of a business, or listing the county elections office as their mailing address and picking up the fraudulent ballot(s) there. For instance, such a fraudster might find government documents in the trash or purchase them from homeless people. A person operating or working at a homeless shelter is in a good position to perform such fraud.
It is unclear what checks are in place to prevent such fraud from occurring at a large scale. While a large batch of voter registration applications, all with the same homeless shelter listed as the address, might raise suspicions from an observant county clerk, it is unclear whether those suspicions would (or legally could) result in additional scrutiny or the denial of any of the applications.
Policy Options
Legal battles that could affect these policy options are ongoing. At present, Oregon may choose to require proof of citizenship in order to register and vote in state elections, but not in federal elections. According to the 2023 ruling by the 9th Circuit Court in the case of Mi Familia Vota v Fontes, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) precludes requiring proof of citizenship for federal elections. In brief, the NVRA requires states to use and accept the federal form. The federal form does not require Documentary Proof of Citizenship (DPOC). Therefore, states may not require DPOC as that imposes an additional barrier to registration. Federal legislation would be necessary before a state could legally require proof of citizenship in order to register to vote in federal elections. (Mi-familia-vota-2023-09-14-order-granting- plaintiffs-cross-motion-for-summary-judgment.pdf (documentcloud.org), Mi Familia Vota v. Fontes | Brennan Center for Justice)
This report divides intentional fraud into two general categories: (1) applications for fictitious persons and (2) applications which use real information from real persons. Fraudulent use of legitimate ballots belonging to actual persons is beyond the scope of this report.
In order to help protect against fraud that employs fictitious names and persons, Oregon could use and require a consistent ID number tied to a single individual for all voter registrations. For instance, applicants could be required to provide an Oregon DMV# and each DMV# could be used for only a single registered voter. When combined with a system that ensures that no individual could, through deception, acquire two DMV#s, Oregon could ensure that no more than one ballot is set out for each eligible voter. The difficulty would lie predominantly in ensuring that no unique individual could acquire more than one DMV# by employing fake names to acquire other documents. To achieve that end, such a system would likely need to be based on biometric data (e.g. fingerprints, facial recognition, DNA).
In order to help protect against fraudulent voter registrations that use real government documents belonging to other people, there must be a way to ensure that the person registering to vote is the same person to whom the government document pertains. This too would likely require some type of biometric matching.
Policies involving a government database of biometric data on citizens raise valid concerns about government surveillance and the potential for abuse of power.
Acronyms:
CVRS = Centralized Voter Registration System
DMV = Department of Motor Vehicles
DPOC = Documentary Proof Of Citizenship
DPOR = Documentary Proof of Residence
HAVA = Help Americans Vote Act of 2002
ID = Identification
NVRA = National Voting Rights Act of 1993
OCVR = Oregon Centralized Voter Registration (Database used for confirming ID and adding voters)
OMV = Oregon Motor Voter [Registration]
ORVIS = Oregon Registered Voter Information System (a new system being set up to replace OCVR)
SOS = Secretary of State
SSA = Social Security Administration
SS#/SSN = Social Security Number
UOCAVA = Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act
USPS = United State Postal Service
VAEH = Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act
*Report Prepared by Darren McCormick*