Bend, OR – Oregon’s voter registration system is under intense scrutiny following revelations that hundreds of noncitizens were mistakenly added to the state’s voter rolls due to errors made by state employees. The issue has sparked concerns over the integrity of the state’s elections and the potential legal consequences for individuals who were unknowingly registered to vote.

In a recent development, Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read’s office forwarded three cases of suspected illegal voting by noncitizens to the state’s Department of Justice (DOJ) for further investigation. These cases are among a group of individuals who were erroneously registered to vote as a result of mistakes at the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). Seven additional people are still being investigated for possible illegal voting, according to the Secretary of State’s office.

Under Oregon law, only U.S. citizens are allowed to vote. Noncitizens who vote in state elections face the possibility of up to one year in jail if convicted. The mistakes, which date back to last summer, stemmed from the state’s Motor Voter law—a program designed to automatically register Oregonians to vote when they apply for or renew their state ID or driver’s license. While the law was meant to streamline voter registration, state officials acknowledged that errors at the DMV led to noncitizens being improperly registered.

In some cases, DMV employees mistakenly registered individuals who presented foreign passports or birth certificates that should have flagged them as noncitizens. Others were registered despite being born in American Samoa, a U.S. territory where residents are not automatically granted U.S. citizenship. As a result, more than 1,600 people were added to the voter rolls, though not all were eligible to vote.

The mistakes were discovered last fall, during the tenure of former Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade, who reassured the public that the number of noncitizens who ultimately voted as a result of the errors was “vanishingly small” and unlikely to have affected any election results. However, the issue has garnered significant attention and raised questions about the safeguards in Oregon’s voter registration system.

Secretary Read, who took office last month, expressed concerns about maintaining the integrity of the state’s elections. “The public needs to be able to trust that our laws are being followed,” he said in a statement. “Only U.S. citizens are permitted to vote in our elections.” Despite this, Read has been cautious in his approach, and no detailed plans for addressing the issue have been revealed as of yet.

The Oregon DOJ confirmed that it had received a letter from Read’s office last Friday regarding the suspected illegal voting cases. However, the department has not yet decided whether it will open investigations into the matter.

The situation has divided lawmakers, with Republicans pushing for changes to the Motor Voter law and some Democrats expressing concern about the potential consequences for those affected by the errors. House Majority Leader Ben Bowman, a Democrat, raised concerns during a legislative hearing last year about the possibility of prosecuting individuals who were mistakenly registered to vote. “Those folks did not ask to be registered. They did not ask to have a ballot mailed to them,” Bowman said. “What is being done to ensure that those individuals are not harmed because of actions taken by the government, not by them?”

Former Oregon elections director Molly Woon reassured lawmakers that her office would provide letters verifying that any errant registrations were the state’s responsibility and not the fault of the affected individuals. These letters, called “no fault” letters, were intended to prevent legal harm to individuals who had no role in the error.

While the situation has raised questions about the future of Oregon’s Motor Voter law, it has also sparked renewed calls for reforms to improve the accuracy of the voter registration system. Oregon officials have yet to outline specific changes, but Read’s office has signaled that the state is committed to implementing safeguards to prevent similar issues in the future.