With more than 1,200 people without proof of citizenship added to voter rolls, questions about election integrity are swirling in Malheur County and across the state just over a month before people head to the polls.
The Willamette Week first reported that staff at the Driver and Motor Vehicle Services division of the Oregon Department of Transportation wrongly marked more than 300 noncitizens as citizens by mistakenly accepting their passports as U.S. passports.
After a review by the Secretary of State’s office, the number jumped to 1,259, according to a Sept. 23 press release. Officials found that nine of the ineligible voters had cast ballots.
The error arose after the state in 2016 enacted its motor voter law, which automatically registers people to vote when they apply for a new driver’s license or renew an existing one. In 2021, Oregon began allowing people without proof of legal residence to obtain a driver’s license.
Laura Kerns, spokesperson for the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office, said the office does not yet know if all of the more than 1,200 people were noncitizens. She said one person was found to have a valid voting record that went back to the 1980s.
Gayle Trotter, Malheur County clerk, said 36 people in Malheur County were erroneously registered. She said the registrations have all been marked inactive and they will not receive ballots for the November election. Trotter said none of the 36 voted in past elections.
“The secretary’s highest priority is ensuring the integrity and security of the general election, which is why we worked swiftly with county clerks to inactivate those who were erroneously registered through Oregon Motor Voter,” Kerns said.
Cheryl Cruson, vice chair of the Malheur County Republican Central Committee, said election fraud has long been a concern for the party.
She said the committee was very upset about the motor voter law – and specifically about voters who are not assigned a political party when they renew their licenses, but are registered as nonaffiliated voters. She said the problem is that voters can only vote in the party primaries when affiliated with a party.
According to the Oregon Motor Voter Registration, people receive a card in the mail after registration that gives them the option to pick a party or opt out.
Cruson said when the committee heard about more than 300 people being erroneously registered, they thought there likely were more.
“We weren’t surprised,” she said.
Cruson said while voter fraud is a big concern, the committee feels good about the integrity of elections in Malheur County. She noted that Trotter is “very conscientious about her job,” and Kim Wiggins, who heads up the party’s election integrity committee, has been to Trotter’s office and spoken with her about how the process will work on election day.
Wiggins did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cruson said Wiggins gives the county Republican Committee reports at each meeting about his discussions with Trotter.
She said the committee still has doubts about the votes being sent through a computer transmission.
“We just have a question of whether the ballots will get to where they’re supposed to,” Cruson said.
In a Tuesday, Sept. 17 interview, Trotter said the machines the office uses to count the ballots are offline and that some people think the votes should be hand-counted. Trotter said it would not be possible, even in a small county like Malheur, to count the ballots by hand.
“It would take way too long, she said. It needs to be the machine tallying.”
Trotter said the county clerk’s office ensures ballot integrity by verifying signatures, checking for the accurate filling of ovals and using a mixed party inspection board and election workers from Democrat, Republican and Independent parties, along with any other minor party affiliation and non-affiliated voters. She said state law requires the election boards to be politically diverse.
“They have to be mixed boards with people on both sides doing the same job and doing the same thing,” she said.
Trotter, who has been the Malheur County Clerk for seven years and has worked in the clerks’ office for more than 25 years, said while there has always been some distrust in the election process, it’s gotten worse in the last decade.
She said social media, cable news and hyper-partisanship have fanned the flames. Trotter said social media has created a situation where someone can get online and spread falsehoods, and people will believe it instead of verifying it themselves.
Trotter said that in every election, regardless of political affiliation, there is always a contingent who will not accept the results of an election if their side does not win.
“They’re going to blame it on the election, they’re going to say there was fraud no matter who wins,” she said.
CORRECTION: County Clerk Gayle Trotter has been the clerk for seven years and has worked in the office for 25 years. The Enterprise reported Trotter had been the clerk for 25 years. An election board can consist of Democrats, Independents, Republicans, voters of any other minor party affiliation and non-affiliated voters. An earlier version of the story didn’t specify minor party and non-affiliated voter eligibility. The Enterprise apologizes for the errors.
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