ERIC has been touted as the “only secure, sophisticated tool of its kind capable of fully bringing voter registration systems into the 21st century.”
"What ERIC does is allow elections officials in these states to keep voter lists that are more accurate, more cost effective, and serve their voters better," David Becker with the Pew Charitable Trusts said back in a 2014 presentation.
ERIC is described on ericstates.org as a "nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization created by and comprised of state election officials from around the United States" that uses "state-of-the-art data matching technology, a robust and safe data sharing program built on widely accepted information security standards, and an unprecedented commitment to cooperation would vastly improve their ability to maintain accurate voter rolls."
And up until recently, Kentucky’s Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams has been supportive of the system, but in a new court filing his office argues the exodus from ERIC in other GOP-led states — including places where Kentuckians often move, like Florida, Ohio, and Virginia — is causing the state to question the system’s usefulness going forward.
The Herald Leader reports Adams’ motion notes the secretary’s previous defense of the ERIC system, but asks whether the shrinking list of states involved might make it less beneficial and more costly for Kentucky to remain a member.
A spokesperson for Adams’ office, Michon Lindstrom, says the motion is “just exploratory at this point."
But the move underscores how conspiracy thinking and misinformation, even outside of Kentucky, could have an effect on the commonwealth’s decision to stick with or drop a widely-used nonpartisan election tool. At its height so far, ERIC has been utilized by 31 states plus the District of Columbia. That number has now fallen to 25 states plus D.C.
