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Bill would require Secretary of State to verify citizenship on certain DMV/OHA registrations
Summary
House Bill 34 70 would require the Secretary of State to verify citizenship data provided by the Department of Transportation or Oregon Health Authority before forwarding registrations to county election officials; sponsor argued the change would place responsibility for eligibility verification with the Secretary of State.
Representative Christine Drazen presented House Bill 34 70 to the House Committee on Rules on March 12, 2025, saying, "this is a bill that says the buck stops here," placing verification responsibility with the Secretary of State. The bill text as read to the committee requires the Secretary of State to verify voter registration information provided by the Oregon Department of Transportation or the Oregon Health Authority to determine whether the person is a United States citizen.
Drazen described concerns raised by previous errors in which noncitizens were reportedly added to voter rolls during automated data exchanges. She said the Department of Motor Vehicles’ (DMV) primary mission is not elections and argued the Secretary of State should have a central role and access to necessary data to ensure eligibility prior to county-level registration updates. She noted previous briefings with the Secretary of State and described limitations in the Secretary of State’s ability to access DMV records for later audit or verification.
Representative Boyce (member who signed onto the bill) said his district’s constituents had expressed concerns about election confidence and that the bill would boost public trust through stronger verification. Drazen explained some practical verification resources available to the Secretary of State’s office, including memorandum-of-agreement participation in the SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) program used in other states to verify entitlement eligibility and to help rule out ineligibility in registration records.
Committee members asked about implementation and whether the Secretary of State had indicated how it would comply. Drazen said she had met with the Secretary of State’s office and that the larger issue is whether the Secretary of State can see the same DMV data and retain it long enough to audit; she described document-retention variability depending on Real ID versus standard license processes.
Procedure: committee opened and closed a public hearing on House Bill 34 70 on March 12, 2025; no committee vote occurred in the transcript.
Ending: The bill remains under committee consideration while sponsors and the Secretary of State’s office continue discussions about data access, privacy protections and retention windows needed for verification and audit.
