A sign advertises a touchscreen machine, a new process for voter registration at the Department of Motor Vehicles, in this undated photo taken in Santa Ana. (Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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Tens of thousands of Californians have been registered to vote incorrectly by the state Department of Motor Vehicles, including mistakes that assigned some voters the wrong political party preference, officials said Wednesday.

Officials insist the errors were limited to a small number of the 1.4 million voter registration files sent to elections offices between late April, when California’s new automated “motor voter” system went into effect, and early August. The errors did not, officials said, allow anyone other than a U.S. citizen to register to vote. Californians who were affected will soon receive notification in the mail to check their voter registration status.

Jean Shiomoto, the state’s DMV director, and Amy Tong, director of the California Department of Technology, described the problem as “an administrative processing error” in a letter to Secretary of State Alex Padilla, California’s chief elections officer.

“We are committed to getting this right and are working closely with the Secretary of State’s office to correct the errors that occurred,” Shiomoto said in a written statement. Tong declined to comment beyond the letter.

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