On Monday, Florida, Missouri, and West Virginia all followed Alabama’s lead and withdrew from the controversial ERIC system.
The Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, is a multi-state partnership that is used between the states to keep their voter rolls up to date. As more states stop sharing their data with ERIC the system will become less value to the remaining states as many Americans move in and out of ERIC member states.
New Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen began the process of withdrawing from ERIC as soon as he was inaugurated in January.
The three states on Monday announced that they made the decision following weeks of negotiations over potential changes to ERIC failed to reach an agreement.
Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd notified the Electronic Registration Information Center, Inc. (ERIC), that Florida is terminating its ERIC Membership. Today’s announcement follows efforts led by Florida and Missouri over the past year to reform ERIC through attempts to secure data and eliminate ERIC’s partisan tendencies, all of which were rejected the Florida Secretary claimed.
“As Secretary of State, I have an obligation to protect the personal information of Florida’s citizens, which the ERIC agreement requires us to share,” said Sec. Byrd in a statement. “Florida has tried to back reforms to increase protections, but these protections were refused. Therefore, we have lost confidence in ERIC.”
“There is no defensible justification to allow any opportunity for partisanship in voter registration and list maintenance, much less in the administration of our nation’s elections,” said West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner. “It truly is a shame that an organization founded on the principle of nonpartisanship would allow the opportunity for partisanship to stray the organization from the equally important principle of upholding the public’s confidence.”
In 2022, a working group of ERIC member states was formed and proposed necessary changes to the ERIC Membership agreement. These reforms would have eliminated concerns about ERIC’s potential partisan leanings, and made the information shared with ERIC more secure. Those changes were rejected in a Board of Governors meeting on Sunday, prompting the three GOP states to leave the system.
“We have worked hard over the last several years to implement procedures that will make Missouri elections better, voter rolls more accurate, and bring greater trust to the election process,” Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said. “Voter confidence is compromised when individuals vote in more than one state and nothing is done. It appears that ERIC will not make the necessary changes to address these concerns, therefore, it is time to move on.”
In a recent visit to ERIC’s stated address, Allen found an empty meeting place with no offices.
“Before I took office, Alabama transmitted the personal information of millions of our citizens to this private organization for the past several years,” Allen said. “That information is stored on a server somewhere, but we do not know where. There is no ERIC operation at the location they claim is their office. A lot of personal data and taxpayer money has been transferred to ERIC. Where is that data? Where are the employees? Where are the offices? Where are the computers?”
Before he was elected, Allen had promised that Alabama would leave the ERIC system.
“I made a promise to the people of Alabama that ending our state’s relationship with the ERIC organization would be my first official act as Secretary of State,” Allen said in a statement. The letter said that Alabama would immediately cease transmitting data.
Allen cited privacy concerns for his decision.
“Providing the private information of Alabama citizens, including underage minors, to an out-of-state organization is troubling to me and to people that I heard from as I traveled the state for the last 20 months,” Allen said.
The database was created as a tool to maintain accurate voter rolls and combat fraud by allowing states to know when someone moves, dies or registers elsewhere. The ERIC system has been criticized by many election critics on the right, who have expressed their concerns about voter integrity.
ERIC had grown to include more than 30 states and governments across the political spectrum, including Rhode Island, the District of Columbia, South Carolina, and Texas. Now with four states leaving in rapid succession the future viability of ERIC may be in question.
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