Citing ‘Partisan Tendencies,’ Florida, Missouri, West Virginia Leave National Voter Verification Coalition

Ballots from the 2020 general election wait to be counted at Veterans Memorial Coliseum on May 1, 2021 in Phoenix, Ariz., where the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) uncovered more than 200,000 voters that had either moved or died before the 2022 midterms. (Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images)

Florida, Missouri, and West Virginia announced on March 6 that they are withdrawing from a nationwide coalition built to allow elections officials from different states to cross-check data in confirming the accuracy of their voter rolls.

The Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) has been under fire from Republicans in several states in the wake of 2021 allegations by Gateway Pundit that it was “a left-wing voter registration drive disguised as voter roll clean-up.”

And the claim that it was founded in 2012 using Pew Charitable Trust donations from billionaire philanthropist and key Democratic contributor George Soros was later debunked.

But elections officials in the departing three states cited a host of other reasons for leaving the voluntary voter data-sharing system, including concerns about personal voter data safety and its cybersecurity protocols.

Former Florida State Rep. Cord Byrd (R-Neptune Beach), here on the floor of the Florida House of Representatives in Tallahassee in 2021, was appointed Secretary of State by Gov. Ron DeSantis in January and on March 6 announced the state was leaving a 31-state voter verification network. (Courtesy of The Florida House)

Florida, Missouri, and West Virginia were among members that in 2022 proposed changes in how the states would work together, including eliminating a requirement for member states to send mailings to eligible, but unregistered, voters to encourage voter registration and to use ERIC’s data to verify voter rolls for inaccuracies.

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said in a statement that the mailing issue was just one of several matters his state had with ERIC because mailing information to all “eligible” voters is not something done in all states and could be exploited by fraudsters.

“It appears that ERIC will not make the necessary changes to address these concerns, therefore, it is time to move on,” Ashcroft said in a statement.

ERIC ‘Rejected’ Changes

Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd’s office said in a statement that the decision to leave ERIC “follows efforts led by Florida over the past year to reform ERIC through attempts to secure data and eliminate ERIC’s partisan tendencies, all of which were rejected.

“Withdrawing from ERIC will ensure the data privacy of Florida voters is protected.”

Byrd, a term-limited state lawmaker appointed Secretary of State by Gov. Ron DeSantis in January 2023, was in the State House when Florida joined ERIC in December 2019.

“My administration is committed to protecting the integrity of Florida’s voter rolls and preventing election fraud,” DeSantis said in announcing the state was enrolling in the service more than three years ago.

“As a member of ERIC, Florida is now equipped with more tools to further ensure accurate voter rolls, make voting easier and reduce costs to taxpayers.”

Through ERIC, member states can share information from voter registration systems, motor vehicle databases, social security death records, and U.S. Post Office records. This data-sharing agreement will help identify voters who have moved to another state, passed away, or changed their name in another state, then-Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee’s office said in December 2019.

Former President Trump's Promises for 2024. (NTD Screenshot)

Enrollment in 2019 was $75,000 a year for Florida. States now pay between $26,000 and $120,000 depending on size, according to ERIC.

In addition to enhancing the accuracy of voter rolls, Lee’s office in December 2019 said ERIC would also “improve voter registration by providing information for member states to contact potentially eligible but unregistered voters with instructions on how to register to vote. Prior to the 2020 general election, Florida will spend $1.3 million to contact potentially eligible voter who are not registered to vote.”

“I have heard strong support for joining ERIC from supervisors of elections all over Florida, and I am excited to provide them with one more tool to serve voters in Florida,” Lee said. “Joining ERIC keeps Florida at the forefront of election security and will help us ensure fair and accurate election in 2020 and beyond.”

Less than four years later, Lee’s successor—she is now a Florida Congressional representative—Byrd said the service needed suggested “reforms [that] would have eliminated concerns about ERIC’s potential partisan leanings, and made the information shared with ERIC more secure.”

“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,” Byrd said.

“Florida has tried to back reforms to increase protections, but these protections were refused. Therefore, we have lost confidence in ERIC.”

Trump Likes It

The three states’ decision to leave ERIC was applauded by former president and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has been critical of the consortium and has claimed that its board and operators use it to boost Democratic voter registration rolls.

In a TruthSocial statement after the states issued their announcement, Trump said, “All Republican Governors should immediately pull out of ERIC, the terrible Voter Registration System that ‘pumps the rolls’ for Democrats and does nothing to clean them up. It is a fools game for Republicans.”

ERIC executive director Shane Hamlin in a March 2 open letter, citing “recent misinformation spreading about ERIC,” iterated the network is a bipartisan nonprofit, financed by members states, not connected to any state’s voting system, and follows standard safety protocols.

“We analyze voter registration and motor vehicle department data, provided by our members through secure channels, along with official federal death data and change of address data, in order to provide our members with various reports,” he wrote.

“They use these reports to update their voter rolls, remove ineligible voters, investigate potential illegal voting, or provide voter registration information to individuals who may be eligible to vote.”

Fewer States in Coalition

With Florida, Missouri, and West Virginia leaving ERIC, there are now 28 member states in the coalition. There were as many as many as 34 states when Florida joined it in December 2019.

Louisiana withdrew from ERIC in 2022. Alabama did so in January. Texas, Oklahoma, and Ohio are among other states—all GOP-led—that may do so this year. Meanwhile, bills have been introduced in California, Kansas, and New Hampshire to join it.

Ironically, through ERIC, Florida’s new Office of Election Crimes and Security in January announced it had identified more than 1,000 voters who may have cast ballots in the state as well as in another member state during the 2022 midterms.

ERIC also uncovered more than 200,000 voters each in Alabama and Arizona that had either left the state, or were registered in multiple counties, or were dead in 2021.

ERIC data was used by Georgia to remove 114,000 voters from its rolls who had either died or moved out of the state, according to the secretary of state’s office.

Prior to the three states’ departures, ERIC had been relatively balanced in the leadership of member states and, in a recent Associated Press survey of 23 participating elections officials, was lauded by eight Republican state elections officials, including in Iowa, Georgia, and Ohio, where Secretary of State Frank LaRose called ERIC “one of the best fraud-fighting tools that we have”—yet, on March 6, said he would be supportive of Ohio leaving the consortium as well.