A recent report from the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) highlights issues with automatic voter registration in South Dakota and Oregon, stating that it has allowed non-citizens to be added to voter rolls. The report reveals that in South Dakota, 273 non-citizens were found on the voter rolls due to automatic registration linked to driver's license applications. After verifying citizenship through the U. S. Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE), these individuals were notified of their removal and how to re-register once they became citizens.
Oregon is noted as the first state to adopt automatic voter registration in 2016 but also faces challenges with non-citizen registrations. Initially, 306 non-citizens were identified in September, a number that grew to 1,259 by the end of November. Problems arose when the DMV mistakenly flagged U. S. birth certificates instead of foreign documents, compounded by a law permitting non-citizens to obtain driver’s licenses. The Oregon Secretary of State's office has since taken steps to correct these issues, including further investigations and halting automatic registration until a data review is completed.
PILF President J. Christian Adams criticized automatic voter registration as a flawed system that complicates voter registration and can put immigrants at risk. The report states that automatic voter registration can inadvertently register foreign nationals due to poor management and lack of appropriate mechanisms to identify and remove them from voter rolls.
Currently, 24 states and Washington, D. C. , utilize automatic voter registration, which can lead to issues in states with high third-party registration activity. Pennsylvania, which recently implemented automatic voter registration, has also faced similar registration issues. Concerns have been raised about the integrity of voter rolls in several states, including California and Illinois, where automatic registration has led to numerous inaccuracies, including the wrongful registration of non-citizens.
Despite non-citizens being banned from voting in most elections, some areas, like parts of California and Washington, D. C. , allow non-citizens to participate in local elections, raising further complications. Lauren Bis from PILF noted that local jurisdictions would need to maintain separate records, adding to the potential for errors. Overall, the report suggests that automatic voter registration is problematic and calls for more stringent oversight to address these challenges.
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