Withdrawals from ERIC are the result of politics that hurt the integrity and security of U.S. elections, say current and former election officials

In response to Florida, Missouri, and West Virginia announcing that they would be withdrawing from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a nonpartisan organization whose mission is to assist states in improving the accuracy of America’s voter rolls and increasing access to voter registration for all eligible citizens, members of Issue One’s National Council on Election Integrity and Faces of Democracy, a campaign made up of election workers, released the following statements:

“Maintaining accurate voter rolls protects the integrity of our elections,” said Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. “Systems like ERIC are an important tool for election administrators and help prevent people from being registered in and trying to vote in multiple states. States that prioritize best practices and actual election integrity over politics are going to stay in ERIC and have clearer and more accurate voter rolls than those that choose to leave.”

“As the secretary of state who led West Virginia to join ERIC, I know firsthand how important the program has been for the state and our election officials,” said former West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant. “Removing West Virginia from ERIC is based on falsehoods and disinformation. This decision will harm the integrity of our elections, and it takes us backwards by making it more likely that our voter rolls will be less accurate going into next year’s election.”

“Accurate voter information is key to ensuring fair and secure elections,” added former Director of Elections for Denver, Colorado Amber McReynolds. “This requires that election officials have accurate information about the primary residence of each voter. ERIC enables states to efficiently communicate with one another when voters move across state lines, and makes it easier to identify and remove voters who have died. This improves the accuracy of voter rolls nationwide. States that leave ERIC will only make it more difficult for election officials to keep up to date and accurate voter rolls.”

“Americans should feel pride that our elections are free, fair, safe, and secure,” said former Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson. “Organizations like ERIC have sought to bolster access and confidence in our electoral processes by facilitating secure, interstate data sharing to ensure more accurate voter rolls. There’s broad bipartisan agreement by state and local election officials that this system works and has improved our elections over the last decade. I am deeply troubled to see politics and disinformation get in the way of best practices.”

“Missouri’s voter rolls are more accurate as a result of our membership in ERIC,” said Boone County, Missouri Clerk Brianna Lennon. “The benefit of ERIC was that it let us know when voters moved out of state or died. Leaving ERIC weakens our voter rolls since we will no longer receive timely out of state information. Our elections are better if we can use every tool available and make the process more accurate and more efficient.”