Ohio joins GOP-led states withdrawing from group that helps clean up voter rolls

Source: Washington Post

DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA

Ohio joins GOP-led states withdrawing from group that helps clean up voter rolls

The decision adds to the ranks of states exiting as the Electronic Registration Information Center faces criticism from election deniers.

By Amy Gardner
March 17, 2023 at 3:57 p.m. EDT

Ohio became the latest Republican-led state on Friday to quit a little-known data-sharing consortium that has helped keep voter rolls nationwide updated and free of opportunities for fraud but has recently come under attack from election deniers spreading misinformation about its role.

In a letter to the organization, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced his plans to withdraw from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), as the consortium is known. Ohio joins five other Republican-led states — Louisiana, Alabama, West Virginia, Missouri and Florida — that have exited over the past year. Four have announced their departures this month alone, raising questions about the group’s future. ... LaRose cited the defeat of proposed changes during a meeting of the organization’s membership on Friday that he said would have improved security protocols for sensitive data and eliminated alleged partisanship from the group’s governance.

“ERIC has chosen repeatedly to ignore demands to embrace reforms that would bolster confidence in its performance, encourage growth in its membership, and ensure not only its present stability but also its durability,” LaRose wrote in a letter to ERIC announcing his decision. “Rather, you have chosen to double-down on poor strategic decisions, which have only resulted in the transformation of a previously bipartisan organization to one that appears to favor only the interests of one political party.”

The states’ departures come amid a steady stream of misinformation from election deniers — including former president Donald Trump — who have claimed without evidence that the group is a left-wing vehicle that shares sensitive voter data with liberal groups, encourages bloated and inaccurate rolls, and enables the very fraud it is intended to stamp out. Some of those exiting have also criticized ERIC’s requirement that member states encourage voter registration by contacting eligible but unregistered residents.

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By Amy Gardner
Amy Gardner has worked at The Post since 2005 and currently covers voting on its Democracy Team. She is part of the team that won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. She is a 1990 graduate of The University of Pennsylvania and lives in Arlington, Va., with her husband, Bob. They have two sons. Twitter https://twitter.com/AmyEGardner

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/03/17/ohio-withdraws-eric-voter-rolls/