In Oregon, Motor Voter And Mass Mail Ballots Invited Cheating

Oregon officials are referring three cases of alleged noncitizen voters to the state Department of Justice, following revelations the state’s “motor voter” system registered more than 1,600 potential noncitizens. But last fall, Democrat state House Majority Leader Ben Bowman admitted the state’s adoption of motor voter and mail-in ballots enabled noncitizens to vote.

“They voted as a result of a government mistake,” Bowman said in a September hearing. “They didn’t ask to be registered to vote, but they were by their government. Their government sent them ballots, we all talked about the importance of voting, and then they voted.”

Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read forwarded three cases of alleged noncitizen voters to the state Department of Justice in early February, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting. 

State officials discovered hundreds of potential noncitizens on the rolls in September, following an inquiry from the leftist Institute for Responsive Government, as The Federalist previously reported. After examining limited data, officials found more than 1,600 potential ineligible voters on the rolls. Out of this number, 10 cast ballots, the Oregon Capital Chronicle reported. While the Oregon DOJ is considering investigating three of these cases, according to OPB, the secretary of state’s office is “still looking into” the rest.

Also in September, Bowman and members of the state House Rules Committee interviewed election officials about the security gaps that enabled the state “motor voter” process to place noncitizens on the rolls. Officials have uncovered more ineligible registrants since the hearing.

“We are in the process of finalizing … a no-fault letter …. instructions to this universe of people on how they can get a no-fault letter from us that they can use if they decide to go through, or are pursuing, the citizenship process,” Woon said at the time. She said the letters were set to be mailed to ineligible registrants around the date of the hearing.

Woon also said counties sent letters to every potentially ineligible registrant on the rolls, offering a chance to prove eligibility and reregister to vote. If clerks could not verify the citizenship of nine individuals who may have voted illegally, she said the “investigations team” in the secretary of state’s Elections Division would send letters giving a chance “to demonstrate if they are in fact eligible.” “If they fail to do so, we will refer the cases to DOJ,” Woon said at the time. 

The leftist lawfare group Brennan Center for Justice has argued automatic voter registration will “increase accuracy” and “improve the security” of elections. Corporate publications like The Washington Post have repeatedly argued that automatic voter registration is “more accurate,” and USA Today even used Oregon as an example of how the system boosts voter turnout. But in Pennsylvania, officials had to launch an audit to ensure the “motor voter” system had not been registering noncitizens. And clearly, there were enough security lapses in Oregon’s “motor voter” system to register more than 1,600 potentially ineligible voters.

As The Federalist previously reported, the Oregon DMV also processed more than 54,600 voter registrations for individuals of “unknown citizenship” between June 2021 and October 2024.

Republican state Rep. Kim Wallan expressed concern that her previous questions about the security of Oregon’s “motor voter” system were dismissed.

“‘How can we be sure that only citizens are registered to vote?’ I’ve asked that question multiple times. … I was so disturbed by the nonanswers that I got, because I usually got the answer, ‘It’s fine, we check. We know that people are not being registered if they’re not citizens,’” Wallan said at the time. “We didn’t have really systems in place; we certainly didn’t have checks. … It seems like it mattered who asked, who made this general inquiry. So who was it that made this general inquiry, and why did you respond to that differently than you did when we asked that question?”

In response, Joyce said, “I don’t think it matters who asked,” but she named the left-wing Institute for Responsive Government (IRG). “We don’t have any, you know, contracts with them or anything like that, I think they’re sort of a good government, perhaps nonprofit.”

But the IRG is far more than a “good government” group. It is a project of the New Venture Fund under the leftist dark money giant Arabella Advisors — which creates and funds left-wing activist groups with millions from anonymous donors, according to InfluenceWatch. IRG argues automatic voter registration is a “modern and secure solution.” As The Federalist previously reported, the group offered $6 million in Zuckbucks-style grants to election officials ahead of November’s election. 

IRG Executive Director Sam Oliker-Friedland is chief counsel for the leftist Center for Secure and Modern Elections (CSME), which is also part of the Arabella Advisors network. CSME also meddled in election administration in 2020. 

As The Federalist previously reported, after officials found Oregon’s system had registered noncitizens to vote, Woon and other top officials planned a briefing call with CSME. Before Read replaced his predecessor (then-Oregon Secretary of State Lavonne Griffin-Valade, another Democrat), Woon and other top election officials announced they were resigning. 

Logan Washburn is a staff writer covering election integrity. He is a spring 2025 fellow of The College Fix. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo’s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan is from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.