DMV review confirms Rhode Island voter registration safeguards

Rhode Islanders can’t be offered the opportunity to register to vote at the state’s Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) unless they first provide proof of citizenship, a review of Rhode Island’s voter registration procedures has found.

Both Secretary of State Gregg Amore and House Minority Leader Mike Chippendale confirmed the results this week, two months after they met with DMV and Board of Elections officials to review the motor voter registration system which relies on the same software vendor responsible for a glitch in New Jersey revealed in July that led to 6,600 noncitizens being registered to vote.

“The DMV’s conclusions, as well as our participation in a systems review alongside the Minority leaders of the House and Senate, affirmed that only individuals who present the appropriate citizenship documentation at the DMV are offered the opportunity to register to vote,” Amore said in a statement Wednesday to Rhode Island Current.

Amore on July 24 requested that the DMV audit its records covering the first two years of the state’s contract with Idemia Identity & Security USA LLC. At the time, Amore said the review was intended to help maintain Rhode Islanders’ trust after a malfunction at New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle Commission mistakenly registered noncitizens to vote when they applied for driver’s licenses and identification cards between June 2023 and June 2024.

Amore requests DMV audit after New Jersey mistakenly registered noncitizens to vote

Chippendale, a Foster Republican, called for an independent audit of the state’s voter rolls the same day.

Idemia has been a Rhode Island DMV vendor for credentialing and software services since June 2002, with a number of extensions and amendments since then, the latest through June 2027.

Amore’s audit request covered 2017 to 2019, the first two years of the DMV’s motor voter transaction system after the state adopted automatic voter registration. Since 2019, the DMV has conducted a regular audit of a randomized selection of driver records to ensure that database entries match paper records.

Two weeks after Amore’s request, on Aug. 7, the Democratic secretary of state met with Republican House and Senate leaders at the DMV’s Cranston headquarters, where DMV and elections officials presented how the system prevents people who identify as noncitizens from registering to vote.

Chippendale described the meeting as a relief in this midterm year.

“The way that our system operates, it simply isn’t possible for anyone who clicks ‘non-citizen’ to even access the voter registration portion of the system,” he said in a statement Thursday. “That’s a strong safeguard.”

But the meeting raised a separate issue for Chippendale: that the DMV’s system does not distinguish Driver Privilege Cards (DPC), which noncitizens can obtain, from standard driver’s licenses. 

“Even more concerning, is that once an individual leaves the DMV – not even the DMV can distinguish between the DPC and a real Driver’s License,” he said. “There is no record kept of DPCs issued – they simply mix in with all the Driver’s Licenses in the system.”

Chippendale said he later learned the Rhode Island Board of Elections gets a separate list of Driver Privilege Card recipients and checks it against voter records after elections.

“What was concerning to me, was that this was the first time I was hearing of this,” he said.

Chippendale, who is running unopposed for an eighth term representing House District 40, said he plans to introduce legislation next year aimed at strengthening safeguards and penalties for people who cast ballots despite being ineligible to vote.

A spokesperson for Idemia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.