Issue One’s National Council on Election Integrity Calls for Renewed Vigilance Against Ongoing Threats to U.S. Elections

In response to a number of states announcing their withdrawal from ERIC amid ongoing threats to our elections, Issue One’s bipartisan National Council on Election Integrity issued the following statement:

“As state and local election officials prepare for the 2024 elections, we remain deeply concerned that ongoing attacks on the integrity and operations of our elections will further erode the public trust and aid foreign and domestic actors who want to sow doubt and weaken American democracy.

“Recently, we’ve seen a number of states make what appear to be politically-motivated decisions to withdraw from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a nonprofit membership organization created by Republican and Democratic state election officials that provides member states with vital information to accurately update voter rolls, remove ineligible voters, provide voter registration information to individuals who may be eligible to vote, and investigate potential illegal voting.

“Opponents of our nation’s free and fair elections continue to attack critical election infrastructure as part of an ongoing effort to undermine confidence in the democratic process. 

“ERIC is a trusted tool to ensure voter rolls are accurate. There is broad bipartisan agreement among state and local election officials that the system works and is a crucial tool for maintaining the integrity of state voter rolls by facilitating secure information-sharing among states. We are encouraged that some states, including California, are considering joining ERIC. If other states have ideas about ways to improve ERIC, they should remain at the table and advocate for them. Leaving ERIC now will only make voter rolls less accurate going into the 2024 election and play into the hands of foreign adversaries seeking to sow doubt in America’s democratic norms.

“We must remain vigilant against efforts at home and abroad to disrupt and harm our elections. That means supporting and investing in the dedicated officials who administer our elections, providing jurisdictions with more resources to counter cyber threats, and rejecting false claims about our elections that pose a direct threat to our freedoms and system of self-governance.”