EXCLUSIVE — Two House Republicans are demanding Oregon‘s secretary of state provide information on how the state is handling over 1,000 noncitizens who have been on voter rolls for three years, the latest step from GOP lawmakers to crack down on election integrity ahead of the 2024 election.
House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI) and Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR) are requesting that Oregon provide answers to the current registration status of 1,259 noncitizen voters that were identified following an audit released last week. The number quadrupled from the agency’s previous estimate of 306 announced earlier in September, according to the Oregonian.
The lawmakers are demanding to know what elections nine of the 1,259 noncitizens voted in, “in the interest of ensuring that voter confidence in our elections processes and outcomes is protected in the next federal election this November” in a letter sent Wednesday and shared exclusively with the Washington Examiner.
The letter does not request the information of a 10th individual identified in the audit as a noncitizen, who the Secretary of State’s Office confirmed to have legally voted after becoming a U.S. citizen, according to the outlet.
Oregon “must rectify” automatic voter registration problems concerning noncitizens, Steil and Chavez-DeRemer said. The Republicans approved of the state’s decision to double-check its voter rolls after initially finding 306 noncitizen registrants but said more needs to be done to ensure accountability.
“It is of great concern that some of these individuals have been on the voter rolls for three
years,” said Steil and Chavez-DeRemer.
The House GOP is also asking for Oregon to detail additional steps to ensure there is oversight over the Department of Motor Vehicles as it works to prevent noncitizens from registering to vote, as well as the steps taken to make sure there are no citizenship problems with other voters.
Steil and Chavez-DeRemer are asking for answers and information to be delivered to the committee’s elections council by Oct. 11.
Federal law requires voter registration forms to compel voters to swear under penalty of perjury that they are citizens of the United States. Additionally, individuals must provide proof of a driver’s license or Social Security number so election officials can verify their identity in U.S. databases.
For nearly a decade, Oregon automatically registered to vote anyone who obtains or updates a driver’s license or state ID and isn’t already a voter. However, in 2021, the law changed after state lawmakers authorized driver’s licenses for undocumented residents.
DMV Administrator Amy Joyce said earlier this month that the agency had a two-step process for verifying license applicants who had a U.S. passport or a birth certificate, but has since added a third step after the errors of noncitizen voting were revealed.
“While we regret this situation has occurred, we moved swiftly to correct the issue before the coming election and implemented swift corrective action to ensure the data processing error will not impact the (November) election or future elections,” Kris Strickler, director of the Oregon Department of Transportation, told local reporters last week.
Instances of noncitizens voting in federal elections are typically few and far between. A fraud database housed by the conservative Heritage Foundation found only 100 cases of noncitizens voting between 2002 and 2022 among a sample of more than a billion ballots.
The letter sent Wednesday is the latest step by House Republicans to prevent noncitizens from voting in federal elections, which is already illegal. The House passed an election integrity bill in July, dubbed the SAVE Act, that would amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to require people to provide proof of citizenship before registering to vote.
Republican leadership attempted to attach the SAVE Act to a continuing resolution in September to force a Senate vote on the election integrity bill, but it failed on the floor after 14 Republicans joined all Democrats in voting down the spending deal. A final spending package extending the deadline to Dec. 20 passed last week without the SAVE Act.
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The clean stopgap spending measure that extends appropriation levels until Dec. 20 was passed last week without the SAVE Act, much to the dismay of hard-line Republicans such as Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), the bill’s author.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade for comment.
