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Electronic Registration Information Center

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Electronic Registration Information Center
AbbreviationERIC
Type501(c)(3)[1][2]
45-5389681[1][2]
Legal statusNonprofit organization
PurposeTo help states improve the accuracy of America's voter rolls, increase access to voter registration for all eligible citizens, reduce election costs, and increase efficiencies in elections.[3]
Jonathan Brater[4]
Websiteericstates.org
ERIC member states and withdrawn states as of July 2024[5]

The Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) is a nonprofit organization in the United States whose goal is to improve electoral integrity by helping states improve the accuracy of voter rolls, increase access to voter registration, reduce election costs, and increase efficiencies in elections. ERIC is operated and financed by state election agencies and chief election officials.[6]

Operations

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At least every 60 days, each ERIC state submits its voter registration data and motor vehicle licensing data to ERIC. ERIC's technical staff matches this data against data from all the other member states and Social Security death data. ERIC identifies voters who have moved, voters who have died, and voters with duplicate registrations within a state's database. States may also request National Change of Address (NCOA) reports using official data from the US Postal Service and, after federal general elections, participate in a fraud check to see if voters cast ballots in more than one state. By matching voter data against motor vehicle licensing data, ERIC also identifies individuals who are not yet registered so election officials can provide information on how to register to vote.[6]

States joining ERIC have agreed to pursue nonpartisan and protective goals.[7] Participating states are required to mail notifications to people identified as eligible to vote but not registered. Between 2012 and 2018, ERIC identified 26 million persons who were eligible to cast ballots but were not registered to vote, as well as 10 million registered voters who had moved, or who appeared on more than one list.[7] Follow-up research in some states concluded that 10-20% of those contacted had later registered to vote, a high response rate for direct mailings. That rate suggests 2.6 million to 5.2 million of the 26 million people notified became voters.[7]

ERIC’s list maintenance reports help states improve the accuracy of their voter lists by identifying voters who have moved within the state, voters who have moved from one ERIC state to another, voters who have died, and voters with duplicate registrations in the state. ERIC's Membership Agreement requires each state to request and act on at least one of these reports at a minimum of once a year, though the ERIC Membership Agreement strongly encourages states to establish a regular schedule for requesting these reports. States must act on these reports in a manner that complies with applicable federal and state law. ERIC's website publishes statistics on the number of deceased voters, in-state and out-of-state movers, and duplicate registrations that it has reported to member states.

Maryland and Illinois state administrators said determining a person's current home address can present problems.[8][7] Member states report that "false positives" are rare.[9] Unopened returned mail—evidence of a wrong address—is substantially reduced.[10]

History

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Seven states initially created ERIC to improve the accuracy of state voter registration rolls and boost access to voter registration for all American citizens. ERIC was launched in 2012 by elections officials from seven states with logistical and financial support from the Pew Charitable Trusts. As of October 2024, membership includes 24 states and the District of Columbia. The Pew Charitable Trusts, although integral to the creation of ERIC, now has no role in ERIC.[11]

The seven states that created ERIC in 2012 were Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, Nevada, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. By 2019, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin had joined the partnership, with Texas joining in March 2020[12] and Oklahoma adopting legislation to join in April 2021.[13] ERIC's matching software was developed by data scientist Jeff Jonas.[7] In the 2020-2021 fiscal year, its budget was slightly more than $1 million.[14]

In 2022, The Gateway Pundit, a conservative news website that does not follow industry standards of credibility and transparency, published a number of articles implying the program was part of a left-wing election conspiracy, despite the participation of both Democratic and Republican-led states.

Various conservative campaigns opposing the program have emerged since the Gateway Pundit series.[15] According to The New York Times, ERIC received seed funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts. Because businessman George Soros had previously donated to the Pew Trusts, opponents of ERIC accused the program of being a "voter registration vehicle for Democrats." However, the Pew Charitable Trusts' funding of ERIC was separate from Soros' donations.[16]

Under pressure from right-wing activists, nine states with Republican leadership have exited the program.[17][18] In January 2022, Secretary of State of Louisiana Kyle Ardoin announced that Louisiana would suspend its participation in ERIC, then fully withdrew in July 2022.[19] Alabama withdrew from the program in January 2023, after Secretary of State of Alabama Wes Allen made exiting ERIC one of his campaign issues.[20] Florida, Missouri, and West Virginia announced their withdrawals on March 6, 2023.[21][22] Later the same month, Ohio also withdrew from ERIC; Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose had previously defended the organization but changed course, saying that ERIC had "double[d]-down on poor strategic decisions".[23]

In February 2023, Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen, who had previously withdrawn Alabama from ERIC, released a statement reporting that he had visited the address given by ERIC for its office. Allen said that he found the office totally vacant with "no ERIC presence of any kind" and that it instead was a rentable "virtual office".[24] ERIC Executive Director Shane Hamlin responded by stating that the address was meant only for mailing purposes and that ERIC has never had physical brick and mortar offices since its founding. According to ERIC's website, ERIC does not disclose the location of any of its servers for safety reasons.[25]

In October 2023, Alabama announced that a new program, called AVID or the Alabama Voter Integrity Database, will use federal and other state data to monitor voter information as a replacement for ERIC.[26]

Effective June 2023, Iowa ended its membership in ERIC.[27] Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate's office explained the decision was based on multiple states leaving ERIC resulted in reduced data making it less effective and Iowa no longer agreed with ERIC rules requiring all member states to abide with its bylaws.[28] One of the main complaints was how ERIC requires member states to perform outreach to unregistered voters to encourage them to register.[29]

It was announced that Virginia was withdrawing from ERIC in August 2023. Virginia's commissioner of elections Susan Beals said concerns about data security and stewardship were the basis of her decision.[30][31][32]

In July 2023, Texas finalized its departure from the organization, leaving only five Republican-leaning states still retaining membership. With the departure of Texas, a total of nine states had left the organization in the 18 months leading up to July 2023. The states, in order of departure, are Louisiana, Alabama, Missouri, Florida, West Virginia, Iowa, Ohio, Virginia, and Texas.[33]

NPR has reported that far-right conspiracy theorists claimed that ERIC was not impartial, though there were at the time as many Republican as Democratic members.[34][35]

Despite several attempts to do so, states departing ERIC have yet to replace it with an alternate system that addresses election integrity concerns.[36][37]

Governance

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Each state has a seat on ERIC's board of directors. The board has created an executive committee and advisory committees to assist with issues related to data security and research. Key responsibilities of the board of directors include approving the annual budget, setting annual membership dues, and a periodic review of ERIC's Information Security Plan and policies. ERIC is governed by bylaws and a membership agreement that each state must sign before joining.[38]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Form 990: Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax". Electronic Registration Information Center Inc. Internal Revenue Service. June 30, 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Electronic Registration Information Center Inc." Tax Exempt Organization Search. Internal Revenue Service. Retrieved May 17, 2023.
  3. ^ "ERIC". Electronic Registration Information Center. Retrieved May 17, 2023.
  4. ^ "Who We Are". Electronic Registration Information Center. Retrieved May 17, 2023.
  5. ^ "Which states are members of ERIC?". Electronic Registration Information Center. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
  6. ^ a b "Home". Eric States. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
  7. ^ a b c d e Millions of Unregistered Voters, New York Times, Steve Lohr, November 5, 2018. Retrieved December 25, 2019.
  8. ^ "Purges: A Growing Threat to the Right to Vote" (PDF). Brennan Center for Justice. July 20, 2018. Retrieved May 6, 2023.
  9. ^ Huseman, Jessica (6 July 2017). "Election Experts See Flaws in Trump Voter Commission's Plan to Smoke Out Fraud". ProPublica. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
  10. ^ "Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC)". csg.org. October 8, 2022. Retrieved May 6, 2023.
  11. ^ "Accountability". pew.org. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
  12. ^ Texas Joins Electronic Registration Information Center
  13. ^ "Bill to help improve Oklahoma voting accuracy signed into law". 26 April 2021.
  14. ^ "Financials". Eric States. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
  15. ^ Miles Parks (February 9, 2022). "Right-wing conspiracies have a new target: a tool that fights actual voter fraud". NPR.
  16. ^ Vigdor, Neil (March 7, 2023). "G.O.P. States Abandon Bipartisan Voting Integrity Group, Yielding to Conspiracy Theories". The New York Times. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  17. ^ Oversight, American (2023-12-15). "The Right-wing Pressure Campaign That Led States to Abandon Crucial Voter-Roll Maintenance Organization". American Oversight. Retrieved 2024-10-11.
  18. ^ Parks, Miles (October 20, 2023). "Republican states swore off a voting tool. Now they're scrambling to recreate it". National Public Radio. Retrieved October 11, 2024.
  19. ^ Montellaro, Zach (January 23, 2023). "Election deniers set sights on next target". Politico. Retrieved January 24, 2023.
  20. ^ Thomas, Erica (November 16, 2022). "Secretary of State-elect Wes Allen notifies voter maintenance program ERIC of Alabama's withdrawal". 1819 News. Retrieved November 16, 2022.
  21. ^ Miles Parks (March 6, 2023). "3 more Republican states announce they're leaving a key voting data partnership".
  22. ^ Vasilogambros, Matt (2023-05-22). "Why Republican-led states keep leaving a group that verifies voter rolls • Missouri Independent". Missouri Independent. Retrieved 2024-02-03.
  23. ^ Schouten, Fredreka (March 17, 2023). "Ohio becomes sixth state to leave voting integrity group targeted by Trump and conservative groups". CNN. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  24. ^ Thomas, Erica (February 23, 2023). "Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen says ERIC headquarters doesn't exist in location given on website". 1819 News. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  25. ^ Thomas, Erica (February 25, 2023). "ERIC head responds to Secretary of State Wes Allen claim headquarters doesn't exist — 'Always operated without a brick-and-mortar office'". 1819 News. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  26. ^ Parks, Miles (October 20, 2023). "Republican states swore off a voting tool. Now they're scrambling to recreate it". npr.org.
  27. ^ Tibbetts, Ed (2023-03-22). "Iowa joins red-wave exodus from multistate compact seeking accuracy of voter lists". Iowa Capital Dispatch. Retrieved 2023-06-25.
  28. ^ Tallal, Skylar (2023-03-24). "Iowa planning to leave ERIC, a program states use to ensure election integrity". KGAN. Retrieved 2023-06-25.
  29. ^ "Iowa withdrawing from interstate program for voter registration sharing". www.thegazette.com. Retrieved 2023-06-25.
  30. ^ Paviour, Ben (2023-05-11). "Virginia becomes the latest GOP-governed state to quit a voter data partnership". NPR. Retrieved 2023-06-25.
  31. ^ "DocumentCloud". www.documentcloud.org. Retrieved 2023-06-25.
  32. ^ "Virginia withdraws from ERIC". www.cbs19news.com. Retrieved 2023-06-25.
  33. ^ Montellaro, Zach (2023-07-20). "Texas jettisons bipartisan voter list program ERIC". www.politico.com. Retrieved 2023-07-21.
  34. ^ Parks, Miles (2023-06-06). "How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud". NPR. Retrieved 2023-06-25.
  35. ^ https://www.npr.org/2023/06/07/1180630924/takeaways-npr-eric-investigation-voter-data-election-integrity
  36. ^ Spakovsky, Hans von. "Maintaining Accurate Voter Registration Rolls: The Need to Rehabilitate the ERIC Program or Form an Alternative". The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 2024-02-03.
  37. ^ Fifield, Jen (2023-12-18). "Documents show Republican-led states struggling to clean voter rolls after leaving ERIC". Louisiana Illuminator. Retrieved 2024-02-03.
  38. ^ ERIC Bylaws
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