Saturday, July 29, 2023

Texas latest state to leave voter roll integrity group ERIC, amid concerns of partisanship, cost

 Texas is the largest and most recent state to leave the nationwide election integrity group ERIC, amid such concerns as partisan influence, increasing costs and a failure to address voter fraud.

Texas' recent departure follows eight other GOP-led states - dropping ERIC's membership to just 25 states.

"As fewer states participated in ERIC, the costs were set to increase," said a Texas secretary of state's office spokesperson.

"Virginia has been participating in talks with other states for several months about creating new state-to-state data-sharing relationships for the purpose of identifying potential double voters," a state Department of Elections spokesperson said in June.

Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams is considering the possibility of leaving ERIC but says his state will remain for another year.

As more states were leaving ERIC earlier this year, the partnership's executive director, Shane Hamlin, wrote in a March 2 open letter on ERIC's website that state election officials - "Our members" - govern the group and fund day-to-day operations through payment of annual dues, which they set for themselves.

"ERIC is never connected to any state's voter registration system," he wrote.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/texas-becomes-latest-state-leave-eric-voter-data-sharing-collective-drops

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