Right-wing conspiracy theories drive GOP-led states to pull out of important interstate voter data-sharing effort – By Audrey McCabe (Media Matters) / May 4, 2023
Six Republican-led states have pulled out of the Electronic Registration Information Center following right-wing media’s baseless attacks
Right-wing media are continuing their relentless campaign to destabilize faith in elections by attacking a foundational tool for registering eligible voters and convincing six Republican-led states to pull out of the Electronic Registration Information Center. These attacks come on the heels of other right-wing efforts to discredit the foundations of American democracy by supporting the January 6 Capitol insurrection, expelling elected officials in Tennessee, spreading lies about vote counting machines, and fearmongering about voter fraud.
In January 2022, The Gateway Pundit launched a series of articles accusing the Electronic Registration Information Center of being a George Soros-funded “left wing voter registration drive disguised as voter roll clean up.” Other right-wing outlets followed suit, creating new narratives to frame a once-mundane data-sharing effort as a bad actor. Since this misinformation campaign began, six states have pulled out of ERIC, with Republican elected officials echoing theories promulgated by right-wing media. Former President Donald Trump also chimed in, posting on Truth Social that GOP-led states should “immediately pull out of ERIC, the terrible Voter Registration System that ‘pumps the rolls’ for Democrats and does nothing to clean them up.”
ERIC was founded in 2012 as a means for states to share voter registration data with each other, allowing them to clean up voter rolls and contact unregistered potential voters. ERIC requires its dozens of member states to submit voter registration data, which is then used to identify voters who should be removed from the rolls as well as unregistered-but-eligible residents who states are then required to contact with registration information.
