The state has identified hundreds more people than previously known who were falsely registered to vote under Oregon’s motor vehicle voter law.

According to an “after-action” report commissioned by Gov. Tina Kotek, the latest count includes 302 people identified Monday. The latest numbers add to the 1,259 people that officials from the state’s Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Bureau and the secretary of state’s office previously announced were incorrectly registered.

Kotek has called on the DMV to pause the process of automatically registering drivers to vote through the state’s auto voter law.

Monday’s news release from the DMV office said 123 new people were added in error due to previously discovered clerical errors. But the state discovered a new error: An additional 178 people from the U.S. territories of American Samoa and Swains Island were incorrectly classified as U.S. citizens.

The secretary of state said officials were still checking whether any of the people mistakenly added had actually voted.

“These records contained evidence of clerical errors regarding citizenship status, but that does not necessarily mean they belonged to non-citizens,” the report said. “We know, for example, that of the ten people identified in a previous review who had a voting history, at least five were actual citizens.”

In response to the news, both Kotek and Secretary of State Lavonne Griffin-Valade signaled that they will examine with new urgency the extent of the problems with automatic voter registration.

“Any error that undermines our election system must be taken incredibly seriously and addressed,” Kotek said in a statement.

The report released Monday deepened the depth of a problem first uncovered on Sept. 13, when the state said more than 300 people had been incorrectly registered. The DMV classified the problem as a “clerical error,” saying officials incorrectly identified people as U.S. citizens when they received driver’s licenses despite providing no proof.

Under Oregon’s landmark motor vehicle voter law, the DMV registers Oregon residents to vote when they obtain a driver’s license or state ID card, as long as they provide proof of citizenship such as a U.S. passport or birth certificate.

The extent of incorrect registrations increased on September 23, when DMV announced that it had completed an audit and incorrectly registered 1,259 people.

State elections officials said the faulty registrations did not lead to a surge in illegal voting. Last week, the State Department said it was reviewing seven cases in which a potential non-citizen cast a vote. The office said it was not possible that potential non-citizens could have influenced the outcome of an election.

But Monday’s report appears to have changed the way two of Oregon’s top elected officials view the matter.

Kotek initially responded to the news of abusive registrations by ordering a follow-up report and directing the DMV to conduct an external audit of its data processing practices. The agency said it had put new safeguards in place to ensure no non-citizens were registered.

But news of even more incorrect registrations calls into question how thoroughly DMV has investigated the problem.

The agency said it began reviewing the accuracy of its automatic voter registration process after receiving a request in late July. That request came from a think tank called the Institute for Responsive Government, which wanted to know whether Oregon had problems with its auto-voter law.

DMV says it became aware that incorrect registrations were occurring in early August, but did not notify Kotek or Griffin-Valade of the problem until six weeks later.

Griffin-Valade said she is confident the recently discovered errors will not alter the election.

Tobias Read, the Democrat running to be the next secretary of state, said in a statement that he was “encouraged that these revelations are finally receiving the scrutiny they deserve.”

“Oregonians deserve a thorough investigation into the implementation of the automatic voter registration program and accountability from both the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of State. If this inquiry does not achieve this, I can assure you that I will provide it when I am the next Secretary of State.”

His Republican opponent, Sen. Dennis Linthicum, has long raised questions about fraudulent activity when it comes to the way Oregonians vote. He’s not convinced Democrats can be trusted to solve the problems.

The Oregon Republican Party has called on the secretary of state to conduct a more comprehensive review.

“She has only looked at a small portion of voters registered with the DMV since 2021 and continues to insist that voter fraud is ‘extremely rare,'” said a statement from Angela Plowhead, the party’s vice chair. “This small sample shows how widespread inaccuracies are in Oregon’s voter rolls. The urgent need for an independent, comprehensive audit of voter rolls is critical to ensuring transparency and reassuring Oregonians that our elections are fair and free from fraud.”