LaRose cited the defeat of proposed reforms during a meeting of the organization’s membership on Friday that he said would improve security protocols for sensitive data and eliminate alleged partisanship from the group’s governance.
“ERIC has chosen repeatedly to ignore demands to accept reforms that would improve confidence in its performance, encourage growth among its members, and ensure not only current stability but also stability- on it,” LaRose wrote in a letter to ERIC announcing his decision. “Instead, you chose to double down on bad strategic decisions, which only resulted in the transformation of a once bipartisan organization into one that seems to favor only the interests of one political party.”
The departures come amid a steady stream of misinformation from election deniers — including former president Donald Trump — who claim there is no evidence the group is actually left-wing. auto sharing sensitive voter data with liberal groups, encouraging bloated and inaccurate rolls and allowing. the fraud intended to be eliminated. Some of the exits also criticized the ERIC requirement saying it encourages voter registration by contacting eligible but unregistered residents.
ERIC’s remaining members have denied the accusations, arguing that the collapse of the organization would eliminate one of the most powerful tools to prevent ballot fraud. just as states begin preparing for the 2024 election calendar.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, one of the few Republican elected officials to publicly defend the organization, said the withdrawal of other states “all but guarantees” their rolls may not very reliable and accurate.
“Many states have been fortunate to avoid the heavy scrutiny of a close, contentious election in recent years, like the one Georgia faced,” Raffensperger said. “But if Florida faces another election like it did in 2000, let’s hope it keeps every tool available to make sure the voter rolls are reliable.”
Four of the Republicans who chose to pull their states from ERIC are expected to seek the GOP nomination for higher office next year — prompting some critics to accuse them of snubbing those Republican voters who believe the 2020 election is rigged, and perhaps to Trump. himself.
The former president has been a leading purveyor of unproven claims about ERIC, describing it on his social media platform Truth Social in early March as “the monstrous Registration System of Voters who ‘pumped the rolls’ for Democrats and did nothing to clean them up.”
LaRose is widely expected to run for the US Senate seat currently held by Democrat Sherrod Brown. The secretaries of state of West Virginia and Missouri – Mac Warner and Jay Ashcroft – are expected to run for governor in their states. And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who oversees elections there, is expected to seek his party’s nomination for president.
“This whole controversy is fueled by easily debunked misinformation and a newfound desire by some member states to opt out of sending eligible citizens information on how to register. to vote,” Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) said in a text message. “It is noted that the states leading these attacks are led by Republican politicians who are likely seeking higher office and are actively trying to curry favor with extremists in their party and, in most cases, Trump himself.”
ERIC is set up to impose a good voter-roll practices of states while keeping Republicans and Democrats happy in a realm full of mutual suspicions.
The organization compiles expensive change of address data from the US Postal Service, death records from the Social Security Administration and members’ personal vehicle records and voter data. The consortium uses that information to generate reports for member states to help them remove from their rolls people who have died or moved. Voter participation data can be used to identify and prosecute duplicate voters across the state.
Members should also send a postcard to eligible, unregistered voters in their state urging them to register to vote.
The point of the two prongs of ERIC’s mission is to provide incentives to both Republicans, who tend to emphasize strictness. list maintenance, and Democrats, who focus on encouraging voter registration, join the organization. By early 2022, 34 states, which covers a wide range of political ideologies, joined the consortium.
Last year, Louisiana was the first to withdraw from ERIC, citing unsubstantiated security concerns raised by the right-wing media. Alabama followed suit in January.
Earlier this month, three more states — Florida, Missouri and West Virginia — pulled out. Additionally, Texas is considering legislation that would require it to exit ERIC, and its secretary of state has begun the process of establishing its own, internal program to maintain the list.
It’s less clear what will happen to two other states, North Carolina and Oklahoma, which are considering joining ERIC this year. In North Carolina, Republican lawmakers introduced legislation blocking the plans. And Oklahoma officials have indicated a desire to cooperate with Texas’ new list maintenance program.
Many ERIC supporters say the organization is unlikely to collapse because many Democratic states, and some Republicans, remain committed to it, as do the six states where Trump contested his defeat in 2020. In addition, the group may get a giant this year – California – considering the law that requires it to participate. Its neighbors, including Arizona and Nevada, are championing the possibility because more people move across the California border each year and a wealth of data from the nation’s most populous state can fuel efforts to list maintenance.
Raffensperger said: “In some years, the ERIC partner says things like Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin, where Trump has focused most of his post-2020 disillusionment, have much cleaner voter rolls than of the red states withdrawing from the organization.”