South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson (R), left, and David Becker, co-founder of ERIC. | South Dakota Secretary of State / LinkedIn
South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson (R), left, and David Becker, co-founder of ERIC. | South Dakota Secretary of State / LinkedIn
South Dakota is among 26 states that have resigned from or are not members of a national voter data group accused of partisanship in its work to expand voter rolls and lacking in transparency, an analysis by the Rushmore State News found.
In 2023 alone, nine states resigned membership in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), which includes the District of Columbia among its members.
“ERIC is the most effective tool available to help election officials maintain more accurate voter rolls and detect possible illegal voting,” said the group’s website. “ERIC also helps states reach out to potentially eligible but not yet registered individuals with information on how best to register to vote.”
Hayden Ludwig, the director of policy research for Restoration for America, wrote in a column that, “ERIC was supposedly designed to help states cull their lists of voters who’ve died, moved or otherwise become ineligible.”
“Here’s the truth: ERIC was created to expand the nation’s voter rolls, not clean them,” Ludwig wrote. “Take it from ERIC founder and leftist elections lawyer David Becker, who bragged in 2018 that ‘(ERIC) is the single most effective voter registration drive in the history of the United States,’ responsible for adding, in ERIC states, ‘between five and six million (new voters) in just six years.’”
Ludwig wrote that, “Newly acquired public records reveal that there’s much more to the exact relationship between … (ERIC) and the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR) than meets the eye. Emails obtained by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (and archived here) show Rhode Island Elections Director Rob Rock ‘working with CEIR’ ‘to facilitate the secure transfer of . . . ERIC member data’ to this private, third-party organization run by ERIC founder and ex-board member David Becker.”
Legal Newsline reported that Becker has been described as a “hard-core leftist” who “hates conservatives." Becker resigned from the ERIC board in March, following the resignation of four states from ERIC during that month alone.
Ohio was one of those states, and Ohio Secretary of State Frank La Rose cited ERIC's "hyper-partisan allies" as a reason for his state's resignation from the program.
"I cannot justify the use of Ohio’s tax dollars for an organization that seems intent on rejecting meaningful accountability, publicly maligning my motives and waging a relentless campaign of misinformation about this effort," wrote La Rose in a letter to Shane Hamlin, executive director of ERIC. "The conduct of ERIC and some of its hyper-partisan allies in recent weeks only heightens my suspicion and reinforces my decision."
Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, West Virginia, Virginia, Iowa, and Texas all resigned their memberships in 2023.
Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin cited "partisan concerns" for his state's resignation.
"The announcement comes amid concerns raised by citizens, government watchdog organizations and media reports about potential questionable funding sources and that possibly partisan actors may have access to ERIC network data for political purposes, potentially undermining voter confidence," said Ardoin in a press release.
CNN reported, "The controversy swirling around the group also prompted David Becker – a founder of ERIC – to announce … that he was resigning his non-voting position on the group’s board after conservatives claimed his presence had injected partisanship in the group."
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Source: State statutes and policies, Electronic Registration and Information Center
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