News Outlets Disparage GOP States Ditching Leftist Voter Group
Although the Electronic Registration Information Center describes itself as a nonpartisan entity concerned with maintaining updated and accurate voter rolls, critics on the right say its claims of impartiality are just a smokescreen.
In reality, the group was reportedly launched by a network of left-leaning political operatives who worked to attract support from as many states as possible to create a nationwide organization. Instead of clearing the names of deceased and ineligible voters from the electoral register, watchdog groups like VerityVote insist that ERIC is more interested in adding the names of predominantly Democratic voters.
As backlash against the group has grown, three more states recently announced that they would be severing ties. The latest development came just months after Louisiana and Alabama halted their participation in the program.
Officials in Florida, Missouri, and West Virginia said they arrived at their respective decisions to withdraw after the organization’s board refused to consider proposed changes aimed at making the group’s actions more equitable.
While the three states made it clear why they chose to withdraw, mainstream media sources dismissed their complaints as a baseless conspiracy theory.
Writing for The New York Times, reporter Neil Vigdor claimed that “intensifying attacks from election deniers and right-wing media” were behind the recent defection, noting that Ohio might soon be the sixth state to make such an announcement.
For good measure, Vigdor pointed a finger at former President Donald Trump for spreading supposedly “false claims” about ERIC to his supporters.
Trump addressed the group in a social media post last week, writing: “All Republican Governors should immediately pull out of ERIC, the terrible Voter Registration System that ‘pumps the rolls’ for Democrats and does nothing to clean them up.”
Going on to rally support for other election integrity measures, he concluded that continued support for ERIC would be “a fools [sic] game for Republicans.”
Aside from concerns about partisan motives, some other state officials are considering withdrawing from ERIC for other reasons.
For her part, Alaska Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher explained: “It’s expensive and we are a small state, so to the degree that it has a value monetarily based on our small population in the cleaning it does — are there ways that we could do it better ourselves?”
