DMV Finds 1,500 People Wrongly Registered to Vote Under New System

The California Department of Motor Vehicles announced Monday that roughly 1,500 people were wrongly registered to vote between late April and late September. This is in addition to the reported 23,000 registration mistakes disclosed by the DMV last month.

A Newport Beach resident was one of those who was registered incorrectly and told the Los Angeles Times that he knew it was a mistake when he received a notice last month that said he was newly registered to vote because although he has lived in California for 31 years and has a state driver's license, he is a citizen of Canada. 

“When I saw that card, I just threw it out,” Randall Marquis told the LA Times. “I know I’m not going to vote. I’m not allowed to vote, it’s stupid that I should be registered to vote.”

The LA Times reached out to DMV officials who then said they discovered additional errors that were blamed on employees making data entries.

“We have worked quickly with the Department of Technology to correct these errors and have also updated the programming and added additional safeguards to improve this process,” DMV Director Jean Shiomoto said in a written statement.

Secretary of State Alex Padilla was notified of the errors on Monday and later held a conference call with California elections officials to discuss the new issues. He also asked for an independent audit of the implementation of the motor voter system that began in April. 

Elections officials canceled the incorrect registrations and said the bar code on each individual absentee ballot would ensure that no votes would be tallied on election day.

Assemblyman Jim Patterson is joining Secretary of State Alex Padilla's request for a thorough and independent investigation of the DMV's implementation of the Motor Voter program. Patterson also is calling for a complete shutdown of DMV's motor voter operation until the investigation is done and an immediate change in the management at the top levels of the DMV. Listen to what he had to say to John and Ken below.

Photo: Getty Images

California DMV Accidentally Registers 1,500 To Vote - Thumbnail Image

California DMV Accidentally Registers 1,500 To Vote


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