
<p>Red states are leaving the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC for short, and the exodus is hitting the left’s political nerves.</p>



<p>ERIC was founded in 2012 by seven states as a way to update voter registration rolls, encourage voter registration, and thwart potential voter fraud.</p>



<p>On Friday (March 17), Iowa and Ohio both announced their departure from ERIC, a supposedly non-partisan non-profit launched in 2012 by 7 states that later expanded its membership to include all except 16 states. However, since last year, election integrity concerns have made many Republicans reconsider the credibility and impartiality of election data, particularly the voter data submitted by ERIC.</p>



<p>In his announcement to leave ERIC, posted to Twitter on Friday, Iowa’s Secretary of State Paul Pate wrote that his office is recommending the end of their ERIC membership owing to concerns over election data.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A statement in regard to Iowa&#39;s ERIC membership: <a href="https://t.co/Xx372YWhGT">pic.twitter.com/Xx372YWhGT</a></p>&mdash; Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate (@IowaSOS) <a href="https://twitter.com/IowaSOS/status/1636839092074717187?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 17, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<p>Also on Friday, Ohio’s Secretary of State Frank LaRose informed ERIC’s executive director via a letter of his decision to end Ohio’s ERIC membership. His letter pointed out the reason for Ohio’s departure from the organization: “poor strategic decisions, which have only resulted in the transformation of a previously bipartisan organization to one that appears to favor only the interests of one political party.&#8221;</p>



<p>With the announced departure of OH and IA, a total of seven states have now left ERIC. Earlier this month, three red states – Florida, West Virginia, and Missouri – announced their withdrawal from ERIC on the same day. Alabama and Louisiana had already left the system, with Louisiana becoming the first state to step away from ERIC in January last year, followed by Alabama, which ended its membership one year later. ;</p>



<p>MFE’s <em>Election Integrity News Blog</em> wrote that all eyes are now on the Lone Star state, where the GOP has asked the state’s authorities via a letter to get Texas out of ERIC. The letter reads:</p>



<p><em>BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Republican Party of Texas supports the Texas Secretary of State, the Texas Attorney General, and the Texas Legislators in all efforts to remove Texas from the ERIC program.</em></p>



<p>The increasing number of red states leaving ERIC has created political anxiety for the left, as reflected in leftist media stories and opinion pieces. CNN, NPR, and <em>Politico</em> accused Republicans of sticking to “conspiracy theories” of voter fraud in the recent elections that are making red states leave a system of voter data that they previously trusted and hailed. <em>Politico</em> expressed the worry over two more red states possibly leaving ERIC soon – Alaska and Texas – and wrote that the departure of red states means that the “backbone of American elections is being upended.”</p>



<p>In response, Shawn Fleetwood of <em>The Federalist</em> called <em>Politico</em>’s coverage of the issue “Democrat Propaganda” and offered details of the financial ties between ERIC’s management and left-wing activists like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook during the 2020 presidential election.</p>

Republican States Leaving Federal Voter System Worries the Left
