Right-wing conspiracies have a new target: a tool that fights actual voter fraud
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NPR
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The far-right is now running a disinformation campaign against one of the best tools states have to detect and prevent voter fraud. And experts worry voting policy is already starting to suffer as a result.
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Right-wing conspiracies have a new target: a tool that fights actual voter fraud
The bipartisan program called ERIC allows states to improve voting access and election security at the same time. But it's currently under attack from the far-right.
9:01 PM · Feb 12, 2022
https://www.npr.org/2022/02/09/1076529761/right-wing-conspiracies-have-a-new-target-a-tool-that-fights-actual-voter-fraud
If Republicans over the past few years have made one thing clear, it's that they really care about voter fraud.
Sometimes they call it "election irregularities" or "shenanigans," but the issue has become a calling card for a party whose voters by and large falsely think elections in the U.S. are tainted.
Which is what makes a currently blossoming election conspiracy so strange: The far right is now running a disinformation campaign against one of the best tools that states have to detect and prevent voter fraud.
And experts worry voting policy is already starting to suffer as a result.
A data-sharing revolution
The tool is a shared database called the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC for short. It allows states to securely share voter registration data across state lines and with a number of other government agencies, like the Social Security Administration and departments of motor vehicles.
*snip*