ATLANTA (AP) — For years, Republicans echoing President Donald Trump's false claims that the 2020 presidential election was ridden with voter fraud have pushed for states to leave a bipartisan group that lets officials share data to keep voter rolls accurate. Nine have, but none since October 2023.
A new bill advanced Tuesday by House Republicans in a Georgia committee could make Georgia the 10th.
Twenty-four states and Washington, D.C., are currently members of the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, which Republicans have questioned over its funding and motives. Officials use state and federal data from the group to identify and remove from voting rolls people who have died, moved to other states or registered somewhere else.
Rep. Martin Momtahan, the Dallas Republican who introduced the bill, said states leaving the group, including many that border Georgia, have made the data and its network "totally ineffective.”
But Georgia Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has credited the system for helping him maintain accurate voter data, which officials say provides more robust information than states can gather on their own.
“ERIC is, in my opinion, the most secure and efficient mass voter list maintenance tool that is available,” Blake Evans, who works for Raffensperger and is the chair of ERIC's executive committee, said during a Tuesday hearing on the bill.
Evans has provided data for 71.78% of the more than 2.6 million mailers they sent voters for list maintenance and allowed the office to refer 74 potential cases of people voting in multiple states.
Momtahan said that under the bill, Georgia could still enter agreements with states to share data.
But that could get complicated and expensive. Marisa Pyle from voting rights group All Voting is Local said at the hearing that it has been harder for states that have left ERIC to maintain voter rolls in a timely manner.
“Georgia would be forced to seek these individual piecemeal agreements instead of having access to this 24-state database," Pyle said. "And it has no guarantee that we will reach those agreements.”
Republicans have also raised privacy concerns, but supporters of ERIC note there has been no known breach.
ERIC was founded in 2012 by seven states, including four led by Republicans.
States such as Florida, Louisiana and Alabama have left the group. Trump in the past has encouraged states to leave, saying without proof that the group benefits Democrats at the ballot box. Critics have complained that it received funding from Democratic philanthropist and billionaire investor George Soros.
ERIC's executive director said the group received initial funding from the nonpartisan Pew Charitable Trust that was separate from money Pew received from a Soros-affiliated organization, The Associated Press reported in 2023. The group is currently funded by annual dues from member states.
If the bill makes it out of Georgia's House, it will likely pass the Senate.
“There's not an organization that gives us the quality of data out there currently that we could join,” Evans said.
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Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Kramon on X: @charlottekramon.
