San Diego, CALIF.- The newly implemented Motor Voter program is becoming a liability for Secretary of State Alex Padilla.
IVN.us was the first media outlet to report on the Motor Voter registration concerns. In September the California Department of Motor Vehicles admitted to incorrectly submitting 23,000 voter registrations to the Secretary of State’s office due to technicians’ error.
Now, another layer of concern is being revealed, as at least one non-citizen and perhaps many more were improperly registered to vote by the DMV.
The discovery has prompted the secretary of state to demand a new investigation.
Freeze Motor Voter Program?
A freeze to the state’s Motor Voter program is “certainly on the table,” Padilla said Tuesday, “these mistakes from the DMV are absolutely unacceptable.”
The DMV said about 1,500 people may have been incorrectly registered between April 23 and Sept. 25 because of a “processing error.” That includes legal residents who are not citizens.
California launched the Motor Voter program on April 23, which automatically registers and pre-registers eligible voters when they go into a DMV office to complete a driver’s license, state ID or address change transaction.
Concerned Canadian Prompted Discovery
The DMV discovered the errors after a Canadian resident went to the LA Times over concerns he was incorrectly registered.
The green card holder contacted the Times after he was mistakenly registered when he tried to replace his driver’s license at the DMV.
California’s motor voter law letting residents automatically register to vote took effect in April. Since then, people have newly registered or updated their voter registration more than a million times.
Early voting for the Nov. 6 election began Monday.