Old Dominion News

Virginia today became the seventh state to resign in 2023 from a voter data group accused of "hyper-partisanship."

In her resignation letter to the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), Virginia Department of Elections Commissioner Susan Beals cited "increasing concerns regarding stewardship, maintenance, privacy, and confidentiality of voter information" and "controversy surrounding the historical sharing of data with outside organizations leveraged for political purposes," reported NPR.

ERIC's website says the organization is, "the most effective tool available to help election officials maintain more accurate voter rolls and detect possible illegal voting,” said the group’s website. 

Hayden Ludwig, the director of policy research for Restoration for America, wrote in a column last month that, “ERIC was supposedly designed to help states cull their lists of voters who’ve died, moved or otherwise become ineligible.”

“Here’s the truth: ERIC was created to expand the nation’s voter rolls, not clean them,” Ludwig wrote. “Take it from ERIC founder and leftist elections lawyer David Becker, who bragged in 2018 that ‘(ERIC) is the single most effective voter registration drive in the history of the United States,’ responsible for adding, in ERIC states, ‘between five and six million (new voters) in just six years.’” 

In March 2023, Ludwig published a blog post, writing, “Newly acquired public records reveal that there’s much more to the exact relationship between … (ERIC) and the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR) than meets the eye. Emails obtained by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (and archived here) show Rhode Island Elections Director Rob Rock ‘working with CEIR’ ‘to facilitate the secure transfer of . . . ERIC member data’ to this private, third-party organization run by ERIC founder and ex-board member David Becker.”

Legal Newsline reported that Becker has been described as a “hard-core leftist” who “hates conservatives." Becker resigned from the ERIC board in March, following the resignation of four states from ERIC during that month alone. 

Ohio was one of those states, and Ohio Secretary of State Frank La Rose cited ERIC's "hyper-partisan allies" as a reason for his state's resignation from the program.

"I cannot justify the use of Ohio’s tax dollars for an organization that seems intent on rejecting meaningful accountability, publicly maligning my motives, and waging a relentless campaign of misinformation about this effort," wrote La Rose in a letter to Shane Hamlin, executive director of ERIC. "The conduct of ERIC and some of its hyper-partisan allies in recent weeks only heightens my suspicion and reinforces my decision."

Florida, Missouri and West Virginia also resigned their memberships in March. Alabama and Louisiana resigned their memberships in January, with Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin citing "partisan concerns."

"The announcement comes amid concerns raised by citizens, government watchdog organizations and media reports about potential questionable funding sources and that possibly partisan actors may have access to ERIC network data for political purposes, potentially undermining voter confidence," said Ardoin in a press release.

CNN reported, "The controversy swirling around the group also prompted David Becker – a founder of ERIC – to announce … that he was resigning his non-voting position on the group’s board after conservatives claimed his presence had injected partisanship in the group." 

The Texas Legislature is also considering legislation to withdraw from ERIC.