It is a felony for a non-citizen to register to vote, but that's exactly what Erie County Clerk Mickey Kearns says two people recently did when prompted at his auto bureaus.

"I know that this is a problem that has been brought to our attention recently but quite frankly it's not a problem that's unique to New York," Assemblywoman Monica Wallace said. "Other states have had similar issues and they've addressed it with simple software fixes."

Wallace said studies show generally when the illegal registrations happen, it's inadvertent. She believes New York can at least avoid mistakes in the future.

"The legislation I'm introducing is basically directing the commissioner of the DMV in consultation with the Board of Elections to develop safeguards and procedures to make sure that individuals who are not U.S. citizens do not wind up registering to vote. Whether it's inadvertent or intentional, we want to create safeguards to make sure that's not happening," she said.

Wallace pointed out the citizenship question on the voter registration section of a driver's license application is very small and even electronic applications can be confusing for people who don't speak English as a first language.

"We should have a very clearly and very prominently on our forms, in bold, large typeface, 'Are you a U.S. citizen?' In fact one of the states actually asks that question twice just to confirm that somebody is not misrepresenting," she said.

Although, Kearns said the Green Light Law makes it easier for more non-citizens to get on the voter rolls, Wallace says this isn't a new issue.

"The two instances that Mickey Kearns has brought to his attention are not at all," Wallace said. "They could have happened two years ago because the individuals were legally in the United States."

She plans to introduce legislation in the next several days and while there's not a state Senate version of the bill yet, she sees no reason why it shouldn't have broad support.

"It's a common sense fix. It seems like an easy fix. It seems like it's an easy technology fix. How many times are you filling out forms and if you click a certain box you can't go farther," Wallace said. "That's all this is."