Copyright The Oregonian
Oregon officials have decided not to conduct criminal investigations of any of the 39 individuals who were mistakenly registered to vote in Oregon and cast ballots in recent years. The Secretary of State’s Office says that’s because all of those individuals were either eligible to vote when they did so, or there is no substantial evidence showing that these individuals knowingly violated the law when they voted. The group represents a small fraction of the 1,863 individuals that employees at the Oregon DMV in recent years allowed to register to vote through various clerical errors. Since the Secretary of State’s Office learned of the errors last year, the agency has implemented several guardrails to prevent similar mistakes in the future. “The Secretary of State’s Office will not refer anyone for criminal prosecution because the DMV mistakenly registered them to vote,” the agency’s website states. “A clerical error at DMV caused these mistaken registrations, not the unlawful actions of any of the people registered.” The question of how to investigate these individuals popped up after officials first revealed last year that DMV staff had allowed hundreds of potential non-citizens to vote through Oregon’s motor voter law, which automatically registers Oregonians to vote when they submit paperwork for driver’s licenses. The vast majority of those individuals never cast a ballot in an Oregon election, state officials have said. None of the ballots cast by the 39 individuals who voted — several of whom were U.S. citizens who voted lawfully — influenced the outcome in any election, state elections officials say. Latest local politics stories Washington County levy funding local libraries appears headed for approval Washington County voters appear to approve property tax increase to fund public safety Portland-area governments mobilize to help families in need as federal SNAP benefits remain in limbo Man arrested in fire that damaged Portland city councilor’s home, vehicle Applications open for Multnomah County’s tuition-free preschool seats Earlier this year, the agency referred information about three of the individuals who had voted to the Department of Justice for potential criminal investigations. They selected those individuals because they were the only ones who had not fully responded to the agency’s inquiries about their voting history. However, the Department of Justice decided not to proceed with those investigations because the process used by the Secretary of State’s Office to select those cases had been inconsistent and flawed, a top Department of Justice administrator, Jeffrey Howes, said in a September letter to Deputy Secretary of State Michael Kaplan. The Oregon Capital Chronicle first reported the letter and its content. Howes said the three individuals had exercised their constitutional rights by either retaining legal counsel or not providing information that may have been self-incriminating. “We believe it would be appropriate for your agency to re-review the cases in light of the evidence we uncovered and to determine whether they should receive similar dispositions to the letters of admonishment sent to the 30 other people who were incorrectly registered and subsequently voted once,” Howes wrote. Even if the selection process had been faultless, Howes pointed out that it would be difficult to prove that any individuals had knowingly violated the law by casting a ballot. He said the three individuals had cooperated with investigators, who determined that each of them had signed and submitted a ballot return envelope. “However, each case also presents complex proof challenges to reach the standard necessary for a criminal conviction,” Howes wrote. The Oregonian/OregonLive is not naming the three individuals because they have not been convicted of any crime in this investigation. Tess Seger, spokesperson for Secretary of State Tobias Read, said there is no plan to re-refer these cases or send any others to the Department of Justice. She acknowledged the concerns about the selection process raised by Howes and said the Secretary of State’s Office has “already addressed much of what they raised,” but gave no specific details. If the Secretary of State’s Office gathers substantial evidence that any individual knowingly violated the state’s elections laws, the agency says it will refer them to the Department of Justice for criminal investigations.
