Salem, OR – Today, Governor Tina Kotek directed Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicle Services (DMV) to take additional proactive steps to protect the integrity of Oregon’s Motor Voter program. Her new directive follows an already-resolved data processing error in a set of records transmitted to the Oregon Secretary of State. More information about that error, response, and completed corrective action can be found here.
“The integrity of election systems is the cornerstone of a functioning democracy, and any error that can undermine our voting system must be taken seriously and addressed immediately,” Governor Kotek said. “Following round-the-clock corrective action on the part of Oregon DMV to address the known errors and ensure they will not impact the 2024 general election, I am now directing the agency to go above and beyond to ensure errors like this will not happen again.”
The Governor directs Oregon DMV to:
- Provide updated training immediately to all relevant staff on the full set of corrective actions in response to the errors.
- Undertake and complete a comprehensive After Action Report within 14 days to determine how the errors occurred, document the corrective actions taken, and provide an explanation of why the errors will not occur again.
- Initiate a full-scale data integrity review overseen by a panel of external data experts to produce preliminary recommendations for improved data management by the end of 2024. The recommendations must include staff training improvements to ensure staff have every available resource to succeed.
- Establish a data quality control calendar in coordination with the Oregon Secretary of State to ensure due diligence ahead of elections.