What Went Wrong with the Election Integrity Program, ERIC?
Bottom Line: It was only a little more than three years ago I brought you the news that Florida had officially joined ERIC, or the Electronic Registration Information Center. Yesterday I brought you the news we were out of it. For most Floridians ERIC is the equivalent of the analogy about a tree falling in the forest. While Florida’s elections officials had worked with the Pew Charitable Trust on this initiative, and it played a role in how Florida conducted elections over the prior two cycles, voters wouldn’t have been the wiser. So, what is ERIC and what went wrong with it from Florida’s perspective?
ERIC is a Washington D.C. based non-profit formed with the backing of the Pew Charitable Trust in 2012. It’s run by the states that participate. Every participating state has a designated board member tasked with oversight. Pew felt it was a necessary initiative after research into state voters rolls turned up nearly 2 million deceased voters still listed as active voters across the country and 2.75 million people registered to vote in multiple states.
At its peak in 2020, 31 states participated. Last year however, Alabama and Louisiana left the program, and now West Virginia and Missouri have in addition to Florida. In making the announcement about Florida’s exit, Secretary of State Cord Byrd said the state had “lost confidence in ERIC”. The main point of contention comes from Pew’s decision to track EBUs, or people eligible to vote but that haven’t been active. ERIC’s current bylaws state that election officials must contact those who are eligible to vote but haven’t registered to do so. All five states, including Florida, which have recently departed, have cited that provision. In addition to creating additional expenses for states in identifying all eligible to vote, but that haven’t registered, it does seem to be a divergence from the original mission to aid in election integrity. That’s what’s led to a calling into question about what the current agenda and future mission of ERIC will be.
Notably the change in policy was added after having been advocated by a former Obama DOJ official, David Becker, who now sits on ERIC’s board which would seem also be at the root of the comment by Cord Byrd about lost trust in the system. The good news is Florida’s election systems and election integrity measures have never been better. The not so good news is another tool which potentially could support it, along with aiding election systems in all states, appears to be falling apart due to an apparent deviation in agenda from its original intent.