Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) is a state-run voter monitoring system in which states periodically submit their voter rolls for review to identify incorrect and outdated voter information. Its membership consists of state-level election officials from 31 states and Washington, D.C. ¹

ERIC was established by Pew Charitable Trusts, a left-of-center nonprofit advocacy and grantmaking organization, in 2012. 990 tax data shows that one year prior in 2011, grantmaking organization Foundation to Promote Open Society (FPOS), funded by philanthropist George Soros, provided two grants to Pew Charitable Trusts totaling $725,000, “to support the Pew Center on the States’ voter registration modernization initiative” and “expand [its] scope and scale.” ^{2 3}

Background

In April 2010, in reaction to the U.S Supreme Court’s decision on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a report released by the Brennan Center stated that, “our political system is broken…Congress is dysfunctional. Special interests have generated gridlock and blocked change. This past year showed that unless we repair our democracy, the progressive agenda will stall.” ⁴ The report continues by the Brennan Center proposing to register, “millions of new voters onto the rolls through a modernized registration system—starting in 2010.” ⁵

The development of Electronic Registration Information Center at Pew Charitable Trusts was led by David Becker, the former director of the left-of-center People for the American Way. ⁶

In 2011, Pew Charitable Trusts received two grants from Foundation to Promote Open Society (FPOS), a grantmaking network organization run by philanthropist George Soros, both of which combined to $725,000. The first grant was provided to, “support the Pew Center on the states’ voter registration modernization initiative.” ⁷ The second grant was for the purpose of providing, “renewed project support to the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Elections Initiatives to modernize voter registration systems; and to provide new project support to elections initiatives to expand the scope and scale of the Voter Information Project.” ⁸

In 2016, Becker co-founded and became the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR). During the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump criticized the security of American elections by citing a research report written by Becker while at Pew which claimed that there were millions of inaccuracies in voter records. Becker claimed that Trump took his report out of context and that most inaccuracies were not exploitable for voter fraud. Though Becker was annoyed at his misrepresentation, he attributed the controversy to launching the newly founded CEIR to immediate success. On September 1, 2020, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, donated $50 million to CEIR through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative as part of their efforts to influence the administration of the 2020 elections. ⁹

Activity

Electronic Registration Information Center audits state voter rolls for errors in voter registrations. At least every 60 days, all ERIC member states submit their voter rolls for auditing. ¹⁰ From its founding in 2012 to 2017, ERIC found 26.5 million improper registrations, including incidents of wrong addresses, voters moving out of state, duplicates, and deceased registered voters. In 2017 alone, ERIC found 8.4 million discrepancies. ¹¹ According to a memo, ERIC takes voter data and matches it to death data published by the Social Security Administration to determine where a voter lives or registered to vote. Data includes their full name, the date of birth, address, phone number, driver’s license number, and partial Social Security Number provided by a state’s Departments of Motor Vehicles (DMV). ^{12 13}

Membership

New Electronic Registration Information Center member states pay a one-time initiation fee of $25,000. Annual fees vary by the size of the state, which as of 2017, range from $15,000-$64,000. ¹⁴ ERIC claims that state members save money by joining ERIC despite the fees by outsourcing their voter roll monitoring systems. ¹⁵ As of 2022, Annual dues range from $16,000 to $74,000, but the Virginia Department of Elections notes that total cost of participation averages roughly $300,000 a year with only $39,000 accounting for dues. ¹⁶ In addition, states registered with ERIC must regularly identify and register eligible-but-unregistered voters—what the organization calls “EBUs,” or they lose their membership. As of March 2023, a total of 31 states representing roughly 208 million voters, or about 62% of the total population within the United States, are members of ERIC. ^{17 18 19}

ERIC is run by a board of directors, with each member state holding a single seat. ²⁰

Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck

Electronic Registration Information Center is often seen as the successor to the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck (IVRC), a program established in 2005 by former Kansas Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh in conjunction with the states of Iowa, Nebraska, and Missouri. IVRC used a similar system as ERIC to audit voter rolls by comparing voter records between states. ²¹

IVRC faced numerous controversies concerning inaccuracies, security breaches, and alleged racial biases. One study alleged that the IVRC recommended removing 200 legitimate voters for every one illegitimate voter. ²² In 2019, IVRC was indefinitely suspended due to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union after IVRC mistakenly exposed the private information of 1,000 Kansas voters. ²³

Many of IVRC’s former members are currently members of ERIC. ²⁴

Leadership

Shane Hamlin is the executive director for ERIC. ²⁵

The board of directors for ERIC is made from representatives of each member state. The board chair, as of May 2023, is Jonathan Brater, Director of the Michigan Bureau of Elections. The immediate past board chair, Mandi Grandjean, was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State & Director of Elections for Ohio, but will resign officially on June 16, 2023, according to the group’s website. According to the website’s board listing, the Vice-chair and Treasurer positions are vacant. ²⁶

Controversy

Alleged Racial Bias

Voting expert Marc Meredith has said that the Electronic Registration Information Center does a “pretty good job” at monitoring voter rolls but is skeptical that the organization has no oversight to evaluate its performance. Meredith ran a program to simulate ERIC’s methods and found that the group tend to make more mistakes concerning non-white voters than white voters. ²⁷

Florida

Former Florida Governor Rick Scott (R-FL) refused to join ERIC despite support in the media and from some election officials. Governor Scott refused on the grounds that he didn’t want to give private voter information to “a liberal think tank,” referring to Pew Charitable Trusts, which established ERIC. ²⁸

In December 2019, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) announced that Florida would join ERIC to increase voter security and voter roll accuracy. In September 2020, WPTV reported that despite Governor DeSantis’s public statements, Florida had not yet joined ERIC, allegedly due to a lack of funding and for security reasons and thus would not have its voter rolls monitored for the 2020 election. ²⁹ Florida joined ERIC the following year. ³⁰

Republican States Withdrawing

In March 2023, it was announced that Ohio and Iowa would begin the process of withdrawing from ERIC. As of March 2023 up to seven Republican-led states have made similar announcements including Florida, Missouri, West Virginia, Louisiana and Alabama. Reasons cited for the move by these states include claims of disagreements between member states and the group’s leadership on what member states are allowed to do with voter data collected by ERIC. ³¹ Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, in a letter sent out to initiate withdrawal proceeding for his state, wrote “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.” ³²

1. “Member States.” ERIC. Accessed January 7, 2022. https://ericstates.org/who-we-are/.
2. Ludwig, Hayden. “ERIC’s Friends in the Activist Left: Born in the Shadows.” Capital Research Center, November 28, 2023. https://capitalresearch.org/article/erics-friends-in-the-activist-left-part-1/
3. Return of Organization Exempt from. Income Tax (Form 990-PF). Foundation to Promote Open Society. Parx XV. Attachment 16. Available: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/263753801/2012_11_PF%2F26-3753801_990PF_201112. See Page 143.
4. Ludwig, Hayden. “How the Left Fooled States Into Boosting Democratic Turnout—and How to Stop It.” Restoration News, March 15, 2023. https://www.restorationofamerica.com/restoration-news/eric/eric-the-best-data-money-cant-buy-pt-1/
5. Ludwig, Hayden. “How the Left Fooled States Into Boosting Democratic Turnout—and How to Stop It.” Restoration News, March 15, 2023. https://www.restorationofamerica.com/restoration-news/eric/eric-the-best-data-money-cant-buy-pt-1/
6. “David Becker: Making Elections More Secure.” The American Leader. Accessed January 8, 2022. https://theamericanleader.org/leader/david-becker-making-elections-more-secure/.
7. Return of Organization Exempt from. Income Tax (Form 990-PF). Foundation to Promote Open Society. Parx XV. Attachment 16. Available: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/263753801/2012_11_PF%2F26-3753801_990PF_201112. See Page 143.
8. Return of Organization Exempt from. Income Tax (Form 990-PF). Foundation to Promote Open Society. Parx XV. Attachment 16. Available: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/263753801/2012_11_PF%2F26-3753801_990PF_201112. See Page 143.
9. “David Becker: Making Elections More Secure.” The American Leader. Accessed January 8, 2022. https://theamericanleader.org/leader/david-becker-making-elections-more-secure/.
10. “Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) Fact Sheet.” Nevada Secretary of State. July 1, 2020. Accessed January 7, 2022. https://www.nvsos.gov/sos/home/showdocument?id=9301.
11. “2017 Annual Report.” ERIC. Accessed January 7, 2022. https://ericstates.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/FINAL_ERIC_2017_Annual_Report.pdf.
12. Ludwig, Hayden. “The Left’s Taxpayer-Funded Voter Registration Machine: Capturing Voter Rolls.” Capital Research Center, October 26, 2022. https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-lefts-taxpayer-funded-voter-registration-machine-part-1/
13. Haas, Erika. “Improving the accuracy of America’s voter rolls and increasing access to voter registration for all eligible citizens.” Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), Accessed June 14, 2023. https://capitalresearch.org/app/uploads/ericka-haas-eric-presentation-election-assistance-commission-1.pdf
14. “Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) Fact Sheet.” Nevada Secretary of State. July 1, 2020. Accessed January 7, 2022. https://www.nvsos.gov/sos/home/showdocument?id=9301.
15. “Does ERIC help members save money?” ERIC. Accessed January 7, 2022. https://ericstates.org/.
16. Ludwig, Hayden. “ERIC’s Friends in the Activist Left: Born in the Shadows.” Capital Research Center, November 28, 2023. https://capitalresearch.org/article/erics-friends-in-the-activist-left-part-1/
17. Ludwig, Hayden. “ERIC’s Friends in the Activist Left: Born in the Shadows.” Capital Research Center, November 28, 2023. https://capitalresearch.org/article/erics-friends-in-the-activist-left-part-1/
18. Ludwig, Hayden. “The Left’s Taxpayer-Funded Voter Registration Machine: Capturing Voter Rolls.” Capital Research Center, October 26, 2022. https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-lefts-taxpayer-funded-voter-registration-machine-part-1/
19. Ludwig, Hayden. “How the Left Fooled States Into Boosting Democratic Turnout—and How to Stop It.” Restoration News, March 15, 2023. https://www.restorationofamerica.com/restoration-news/eric/eric-the-best-data-money-cant-buy-pt-1/
20. “Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) Fact Sheet.” Nevada Secretary of State. July 1, 2020. Accessed January 7, 2022. https://www.nvsos.gov/sos/home/showdocument?id=9301.
21. Ingraham, Christopher. “This anti-voter-fraud program gets it wrong over 99 percent of the time. The GOP wants to take in nationwide.” Washington Post. July 20, 2017. Accessed January 7, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/07/20/this-anti-voter-fraud-program-gets-it-wrong-over-99-of-the-time-the-gop-wants-to-take-it-nationwide/.
22. Ingraham, Christopher. “This anti-voter-fraud program gets it wrong over 99 percent of the time. The GOP wants to take in nationwide.” Washington Post. July 20, 2017. Accessed January 7, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/07/20/this-anti-voter-fraud-program-gets-it-wrong-over-99-of-the-time-the-gop-wants-to-take-it-nationwide/.
23. “ACLU of Kansas Settlement Puts “Crosscheck” Out of Commission For Foreseeable Future; Program Suspended Until Safeguards Added.” ACLU Kansas. December 10, 2019. Accessed January 7, 2022. https://www.aclukansas.org/en/press-releases/aclu-kansas-settlement-puts-crosscheck-out-commission-foreseeable-future-program.
24. “Member States.” ERIC. Accessed January 7, 2022. https://ericstates.org/who-we-are/.
25. “Who We Are.” ERIC, Accessed May 17, 2023. https://ericstates.org/who-we-are/
26. “Who We Are.” ERIC, Accessed May 17, 2023. https://ericstates.org/who-we-are/
27. De Groot, Kristen. “The racial burden of cleaning voter rolls.” Penn Today. February 24, 2021. Accessed January 7, 2022. https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/racial-burden-cleaning-voter-rolls.
28. Fineout, Gary. “Scott: Liberal think tank drove decision to avoid fraud-fighting vote effort.” Politico. August 27, 2019. Accessed January 7, 2022. https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2019/08/27/scott-liberal-think-tank-drove-decision-to-avoid-fraud-fighting-vote-effort-1156180.
29. Buczyner, Michael. “Florida won’t cross-check voter data in information center with 30 other states for 2020 election.” WPTV. September 10, 2020. Updated September 11, 2020. Accessed January 7, 2022. https://www.wptv.com/news/local-news/investigations/florida-wont-cross-check-voter-data-in-information-center-with-30-other-states-for-2020-election.
30. “Member States.” ERIC. Accessed January 7, 2022. https://ericstates.org/who-we-are/.
31. Montellaro, Zach. “2 more Republican states abruptly depart from interstate voter list program.” Politico, March 18, 2023. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/18/republican-states-depart-from-interstate-voter-list-program-00087728
32. Montellaro, Zach. “2 more Republican states abruptly depart from interstate voter list program.” Politico, March 18, 2023. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/18/republican-states-depart-from-interstate-voter-list-program-00087728