Citing ‘Partisan Tendencies,’ Florida, Missouri, West Virginia Leave National Voter Verification Coalition

Florida, Missouri and West Virginia have announced that they will be withdrawing their support for a national coalition to enable election officials from various states to verify the accuracy of voter rolls.

Republicans across the country have criticized ERIC in several states following allegations made by Gateway Pundit about its 2021 status. “a left-wing voter registration drive disguised as voter roll clean-up.”

Later, it was debunked that the organization was established in 2012 with Pew Charitable Trust donations by billionaire philanthropist George Soros.

Election officials in three of the states that have left the system for voluntary data sharing cited many other reasons, such as concerns regarding personal voter information safety.

Florida, Missouri, West Virginia, and West Virginia were all members of the 2022 proposal to make changes in how member states collaborate. These included removing the requirement for member state to mail mailings to eligible voters, to encourage voter registration, and using ERIC’s data for verification of voter rolls to correct inaccuracies.

Jay Ashcroft, Missouri Secretary-of-State stated that this was one of the many matters his state has with ERIC. ERIC is responsible for mailing information. “eligible” It is possible to exploit fraudsters by using voters.

“It appears that ERIC will not make the necessary changes to address these concerns, therefore, it is time to move on,” Ashcroft stated this in a statement.

ERIC ‘Rejected’ Changes

Cord Byrd, Florida Secretary of State, stated in a statement that ERIC’s decision was made. “follows efforts led by Florida over the past year to reform ERIC through attempts to secure data and eliminate ERIC’s partisan tendencies, all of which were rejected.

“By withdrawing from ERIC, you can ensure that the privacy of Florida’s voters is maintained.”

Byrd, a term-limited state lawmaker appointed Secretary of State by Gov. Ron DeSantis in January 2023, was in the State House when Florida joined ERIC in December 2019.

“My administration is dedicated to protecting Florida’s integrity and fighting election fraud.” DeSantis said in announcing the state was enrolling in the service more than three years ago.

“Florida, as an ERIC member, has more tools that will help ensure voter accuracy, simplify voting, and lower taxes.”

Through ERIC, member states can share information from voter registration systems, motor vehicle databases, social security death records, and U.S. Post Office records. This data-sharing agreement will help identify voters who have moved to another state, passed away, or changed their name in another state, then-Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee’s office said in December 2019.

Enrollment in 2019 was $75,000 a year for Florida. States now pay between $26,000 and $120,000 depending on size, according to ERIC.

In addition to enhancing the accuracy of voter rolls, Lee’s office in December 2019 said ERIC would also “Improve voter registration through providing information to member states on how to reach potential eligible voters. Florida will spend $1.3M to contact potential voters not already registered for the 2020 election.”

“Supervisors of Elections across Florida have expressed strong support for ERIC, so I’m excited to give them another tool to help voters.” Lee said. “Florida is at the forefront in election security. Joining ERIC will ensure that we have fair and transparent elections for 2020.”

Less than four years later, Lee’s successor—she is now a Florida Congressional representative—Byrd said the service needed suggested “Reforms [that] It would have removed any concerns regarding ERIC’s possible partisan leanings. The information also shared with ERIC was more secure.”

“As Secretary-of-State, I’m responsible for safeguarding the personal information of Florida residents, as required by the ERIC Agreement.” Byrd said.

“Florida attempted to push for reforms to improve protections. However, these protections were rejected. ERIC has lost our trust.”

Trump Likes It

The three states’ decision to leave ERIC was applauded by former president and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has been critical of the consortium and has claimed that its board and operators use it to boost Democratic voter registration rolls.

In a TruthSocial statement after the states issued their announcement, Trump said, “All Republican Governors should immediately pull out of ERIC, the terrible Voter Registration System that ‘pumps the rolls’ for Democrats and does nothing to clean them up. Republicans are fools playing this game.

ERIC executive director Shane Hamlin in a March 2 open letter“Recent misinformation about ERIC has been spread,” he said.” iterated the network is a bipartisan nonprofit, financed by members states, not connected to any state’s voting system, and follows standard safety protocols.

“To provide members with different reports, we analyze the voter registration data and data from motor vehicle departments, which were provided to us by members via secure channels.” he wrote.

“This information is used by them to amend their voter rolls and remove uneligible voters. They also investigate any possible illegal voting.”

Fewer States in Coalition

With Florida, Missouri, and West Virginia leaving ERIC, there are now 28 member states in the coalition. There were as many as many as 34 states when Florida joined it in December 2019.

Louisiana withdrew from ERIC in 2022. Alabama did so in January. Texas, Oklahoma, and Ohio are among other states—all GOP-led—that may do so this year. Meanwhile, bills have been introduced in California, Kansas, and New Hampshire to join it.

Ironically, through ERIC, Florida’s new Office of Election Crimes and Security in January announced it had identified more than 1,000 voters who may have cast ballots in the state as well as in another member state during the 2022 midterms.

ERIC also uncovered more than 200,000 voters each in Alabama and Arizona that had either left the state, or were registered in multiple counties, or were dead in 2021.

ERIC data was used by Georgia to remove 114,000 voters from its rolls who had either died or moved out of the state, according to the secretary of state’s office.

Prior to the three states’ departures, ERIC had been relatively balanced in the leadership of member states and, in a recent Associated Press survey of 23 participating elections officials, was lauded by eight Republican state elections officials, including in Iowa, Georgia, and Ohio, where Secretary of State Frank LaRose called ERIC “We have one of the most effective fraud-fighting tools we know.”—yet, on March 6, said he would be supportive of Ohio leaving the consortium as well.