Despite these alarming ties, there are still several leading GOP state election officials who continue to participate in ERIC. In light of Missouri, Florida, and West Virginia's collective withdrawal from the coalition, The Federalist reached out to these officials to inquire whether they're reconsidering their state's ERIC membership.
While once describing ERIC as "One of the best fraud-fighting tools that we have," Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has reversed course and is threatening to withdraw his state from the organization.
According to the Associated Press, Iowa GOP Secretary of State Paul Pate is among the nation's leading Republican election officials "Who said they [have] no intention" of leaving ERIC and who have "Signaled strong support for the effort."
In Texas, state lawmakers have introduced legislation that, according to The Texas Tribune, would end the state's participation in ERIC. Under HB 2809, the Texas secretary of state would be required to "Cooperate with other states and jurisdictions to develop systems to compare voters, voter history, and voter registration lists to identify voters: whose addresses have changed," "Who have been convicted of a felony," or "Who are registered to vote in more than one state."
In a statement provided to The Federalist, South Carolina State Election Commission spokesman John Catalano said that while the commission has "Many sources of information to remove unqualified voters for a variety of reasons," ERIC is currently their "Only source for access to critical sets of data," including the Social Security Administration's death files and the "List of South Carolina voters who have registered in other states."
"The State Election Commission's view is that ERIC is a valuable and currently irreplaceable tool that allows us to remove unqualified voters from the voter registration rolls."
Leading GOP state election officials from Kentucky, Texas, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Utah did not respond to The Federalist's request for comment.
No comments:
Post a Comment