Great Lakes Wire

The executive director of a foundation that seeks to ensure “transparent, accurate and fair” U.S. elections has criticized the transparency of the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC).

Gina Swoboda, executive director of the Voter Reference Foundation, which has a goal of encouraging greater voter participation in the 50 states, said in a blog post that the ERIC, which is a 501(c)3 organization with a voter registration maintenance system, is flawed.

Michigan is among ERIC's 31 member states along with the District of Columbia. ERIC offers a way for members “to compare their data to ensure voter registration maintenance” is effectively accomplished, Swoboda said. The system allows “members to identify potential duplicate records or ineligible voters on their lists.” However, in practice, it is flawed, Swoboda said.

“Unfortunately, what could be a fantastic program is flawed by the complete lack of transparency within ERIC,” Swoboda said in the blog post. “In practice, a lack of transparency has in some cases prevented the public and election integrity advocacy organizations from carrying out the public oversight of voter list maintenance that is called for under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).”

The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 in part requires states “to implement procedures to maintain accurate and current voter registration lists,” The United States Department of Justice’s website said.

ERIC was created in 2012 to address the issues of keeping voter rolls up to date, its website said. ERIC provides information for member states so that potentially eligible but unregistered voters may be contacted with instructions on how to register.

The members of ERIC submit their voter registration records and drivers’ license/identification (DMV) records as well as “information on current record status, phone number and email address when available.” Also required, if present, are fields “related to name, address, driver’s license or state ID number, last four digits of Social Security number, date of birth and activity date.” However, Swoboda said there is a lack of transparency within the program.

“ERIC compares common identifying data elements and uses additional tools such as a name variation database, fuzzy matching and record linkage,” Swoboda said. “Record linkage is a matching methodology that compares multiple data sources at the same time. ERIC produces reports for each member by analyzing the results of the matching to identify voter records from that member that may be outdated or inaccurate or people who are not currently registered to vote.”

Swoboda said, “ERIC is holding a tremendous amount of data about both registered voters and those who are eligible but unregistered in its member states.” More disclosure is necessary, she said, while wondering with whom is the data being shared.

As of October 2021, ERIC members states were “Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin,” the ERIC website said.

Louisiana reportedly suspended its participation in ERIC this past January, according to a press release.

“When Louisiana joined ERIC under my predecessor, we did so under the impression that it would enhance the accuracy of our voter rolls and strengthen Louisiana’s election integrity. After reading about these allegations and speaking with election attorneys and experts, I have determined that it may no longer be in Louisiana’s best interests to participate in this organization,” Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin said in the press release. “It is vital that any legitimate allegation of voter fraud or possible misuse of our voters’ personal information is investigated. My job is to ensure that the data voters entrust to my office is protected. I look forward to ERIC’s swift response to these allegations.”

Another area of concern surrounds the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), which is in litigation seeking a judgment that would require ERIC to allow members to release the voter list maintenance reports they have, Swoboda said.

“Under the ERIC contract with its members, this information is required to be withheld. PILF has argued that this is a violation of the National Voter Registration Act’s Public Disclosure provision,” Swoboda said. “ERIC should release its members from the provisions that do not permit the 32 members of the organization, which are all government agencies, to comply with public record, NVRA record and FOIA requests.”