PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon elections officials said Monday they had struck over 1,200 people from the state's voter rolls after determining they did not provide proof of U.S. citizenship when they were registered to vote.
Of those found to be possibly ineligible, only nine people voted in elections since 2021, the Oregon secretary of state's office said. County clerks are working to confirm whether those people were indeed ineligible when they cast their ballots, or just hadn't provided the required documentation when they were registered to vote, said Molly Woon, the office's elections director.
The disclosures come amid heightened scrutiny of voter rolls nationwide, from Oregon to Arizona and Texas, as the presidential election nears. Citing an influx of immigrants in recent years at the U.S.-Mexico border, Republicans have raised concerns about the possibility that people who aren't citizens will be voting, even though state data indicates such cases are rare.
In Oregon, for example, the nine people whose citizenship hasn't been confirmed and who cast ballots represent a tiny fraction of the state's 3 million registered voters. Ten people were found to have voted after being improperly registered, but one was later confirmed to be eligible, authorities said.
The secretary of state’s office sent letters to the 1,259 people who were improperly registered to let them know their registration had been inactivated. They will not receive a ballot for the 2024 election unless they reregister with documents proving their citizenship. The state's deadline to register to vote is Oct. 15.
The mistake occurred in part because Oregon has allowed noncitizens to obtain driver’s licenses since 2019, and the state’s DMV automatically registers most people to vote when they obtain a license or ID. When DMV staff enter information in the computer system about someone applying for a driver's license or state ID, they can incorrectly choose an option in a drop-down menu that codes that person as having a U.S. passport or birth certificate when they actually provided a foreign passport or birth certificate, authorities said.
The DMV has taken steps to fix the issue, elections and transportation authorities said.
It has reordered the drop-down menu in alphabetical order so that a U.S. passport isn't the first default option. There will also be a prompt for U.S. passports asking DMV staff to confirm the document type. And if presented with a birth certificate, staff are now also required to enter the state and county of birth.
Additionally, office managers will now do a daily quality check to verify that the document entries match the document that was scanned, authorities said.
Gov. Tina Kotek on Monday called for the DMV to take further steps, such as providing updated training to staff and establishing a data quality control calendar in coordination with the secretary of state. She also called for a comprehensive report that outlines how the errors occurred, how they were corrected and how they will be prevented in the future.
Republican lawmakers in Oregon, who sent a letter to Kotek last week asking her to take steps to ensure the integrity of the state's voter lists, have called for a public hearing on the issue.
Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade said the election in November "will not be affected by this error in any way."
The issue has also gripped other states.
Last week, the Arizona Supreme Court unanimously ruled that nearly 98,000 voters whose citizenship documents hadn’t been confirmed can vote in state and local races. Most of them were voters who registered long ago and attested under the penalty of law that they are citizens. And in August, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a Republican push that could have blocked more than 41,000 Arizona voters from casting ballots in the closely contested swing state, but allowed some parts of a law to be enforced, requiring proof of citizenship.”
FILE— An election worker examines a ballot at the Clackamas County Elections office on May 19, 2022, Oregon City, Ore. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus, File)
BEIRUT (AP) — In 2006, after a bruising monthlong war between Israel and Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah militant group, the United Nations Security Council unanimously voted for a resolution to end the conflict and pave the way for lasting security along the border.
But while there was relative calm for nearly two decades, Resolution 1701’s terms were never fully enforced.
Now, figuring out how to finally enforce it is key to a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal approved by Israel on Tuesday.
In late September, after nearly a year of low-level clashes, the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah spiraled into all-out war and an Israeli ground invasion. As Israeli jets pound deep inside Lebanon and Hezbollah fires rockets deeper into northern Israel, U.N. and diplomatic officials again turned to the 2006 resolution in a bid to end the conflict.
Years of deeply divided politics and regionwide geopolitical hostilities have halted substantial progress on its implementation, yet the international community believes Resolution 1701 is still the brightest prospect for long-term stability between Israel and Lebanon.
Almost two decades after the last war between Israel and Hezbollah, the United States led shuttle diplomacy efforts between Lebanon and Israel to agree on a ceasefire proposal that renewed commitment to the resolution, this time with an implementation plan to try to bring the document back to life.
In 2000, Israel withdrew its forces from most of southern Lebanon along a U.N.-demarcated “Blue Line” that separated the two countries and the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, which most of the world considers occupied Syrian territory. U.N. peacekeeping forces in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, increased their presence along the line of withdrawal.
Resolution 1701 was supposed to complete Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon and ensure Hezbollah would move north of the Litani River, keeping the area exclusively under the Lebanese military and U.N. peacekeepers.
Up to 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers would help to maintain calm, return displaced Lebanese and secure the area alongside the Lebanese military.
The goal was long-term security, with land borders eventually demarcated to resolve territorial disputes.
The resolution also reaffirmed previous ones that call for the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon — Hezbollah among them.
“It was made for a certain situation and context,” Elias Hanna, a retired Lebanese army general, told The Associated Press. “But as time goes on, the essence of the resolution begins to hollow.”
For years, Lebanon and Israel blamed each other for countless violations along the tense frontier. Israel said Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force and growing arsenal remained, and accused the group of using a local environmental organization to spy on troops. Lebanon complained about Israeli military jets and naval ships entering Lebanese territory even when there was no active conflict.
“You had a role of the UNIFIL that slowly eroded like any other peacekeeping with time that has no clear mandate,” said Joseph Bahout, the director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy at the American University of Beirut. “They don’t have permission to inspect the area without coordinating with the Lebanese army.”
UNIFIL for years has urged Israel to withdraw from some territory north of the frontier, but to no avail. In the ongoing war, the peacekeeping mission has accused Israel, as well as Hezbollah, of obstructing and harming its forces and infrastructure.
Hezbollah’s power, meanwhile, has grown, both in its arsenal and as a political influence in the Lebanese state.
The Iran-backed group was essential in keeping Syrian President Bashar Assad in power when armed opposition groups tried to topple him, and it supports Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Yemen. It has an estimated 150,000 rockets and missiles, including precision-guided missiles pointed at Israel, and has introduced drones into its arsenal.
Hanna says Hezbollah “is something never seen before as a non-state actor” with political and military influence.
Israel's security Cabinet approved the ceasefire agreement late Tuesday, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office. The ceasefire is set to take hold at 4 a.m. local time Wednesday.
Efforts led by the U.S. and France for the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah underscored that they still view the resolution as key. For almost a year, Washington has promoted various versions of a deal that would gradually lead to its full implementation.
International mediators hope that by boosting financial support for the Lebanese army — which was not a party in the Israel-Hezbollah war — Lebanon can deploy some 6,000 additional troops south of the Litani River to help enforce the resolution. Under the deal, an international monitoring committee headed by the United States would oversee implementation to ensure that Hezbollah and Israel’s withdrawals take place.
It is not entirely clear how the committee would work or how potential violations would be reported and dealt with.
The circumstances now are far more complicated than in 2006. Some are still skeptical of the resolution's viability given that the political realities and balance of power both regionally and within Lebanon have dramatically changed since then.
“You’re tying 1701 with a hundred things,” Bahout said. “A resolution is the reflection of a balance of power and political context.”
Now with the ceasefire in place, the hope is that Israel and Lebanon can begin negotiations to demarcate their land border and settle disputes over several points along the Blue Line for long-term security after decades of conflict and tension.
President Joe Biden walks out to speak in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
In this screen grab image from video provide by the Israeli Government Press Office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes a televised statement Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, in Jerusalem, Israel. (Israeli Government Press Office via AP)
FILE - Peacekeepers representing 41 different national contingents that make up the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), prepare to raise flags during a ceremony to mark the 40th anniversary of its peacekeeping presence in southern Lebanon, at the mission headquarters in the coastal town of Naqoura, Lebanon, Monday, March 19, 2018. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)
FILE - A Spanish U.N. peacekeeper stands atop an armored personnel carrier as U.N. flags are seen in the Spanish troops' new base in the southern village of Taibeh, Lebanon, Sunday, Sept. 17, 2006, as they joined the expansion of the UNIFIL peacekeeping force in Lebanon under a new Security Council resolution. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos, File)
FILE - Smoke rises and debris flies from a bridge as it is targeted by an Israeli air raid, in the Zahrani region, on the Mediterranean coast, southern Lebanon, on July 14, 2006. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari, File)
FILE - An Israeli police officer runs to the site where a Hezbollah-fired rocket directly hit a building in the northern costal town of Nahariya, on July 13, 2006. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)
FILE - A United Nations helicopter carrying Italian peacekeepers takes off from the UNIFIL headquarters for a patrol over the Blue Line, a U.N.-drawn boundary between Lebanon and Israel, in the costal town of Naqoura, southern Lebanon, Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2018. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)
