AUSTIN — Texas is likely to leave a voter fraud protection program that has been beset by conspiracy theories under a bill headed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.
The proposal, which passed out of the Texas House on Tuesday, would remove Texas from the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC. Abbott has taken no public position on the proposed law.
If the governor signs the bill, it could deal a fatal blow to ERIC, a non-profit that has been hemorrhaging participant states since conspiracy theories began floating in right wing circles alleging — with no evidence — that the non-profit organization was infiltrated by partisan actors. The organization has denied the allegations.
Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie called the bill an “ugly byproduct from the fallout of the 2020 presidential election and the big lie that there was all kinds of election irregularities around the country and that the election was stolen, lies we know that have been debunked repeatedly by the federal courts.”
Texas is the largest participant in the program. So far this year, eight Republican-led states have withdrawn from ERIC. Until recently, ERIC was considered a successful bipartisan effort.
The group uses state data to identify voters that have died or registered in multiple states to help officials remove people from voter rolls when they are no longer eligible.
In 2022, ERIC helped the state identify 200,000 voters who were subsequently removed from rolls after confirming that they had moved. The state pays a $115,000 fee for membership to ERIC, according to the Texas secretary of state’s office.
While efforts have been underway at the Legislature to remove Texas from ERIC, Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson began paving the way to leave ERIC in March. Nelson, the state’s most powerful election official, announced in March that her office would create a Texas-run voter crosscheck program.
The status of that effort was unclear as of last week. Secretary of state spokesman Alicia Pierce said in an email that the office is “actively researching options for voter registration crosscheck programs,” including following the provisions in the bill.
The bill lowered the allowable cost to enroll into a voter crosscheck program to $100,000 and an annual fee of $1 per voter identified by the program.
“It begs the question, is the cost constraint contained within the bill a device to disqualify ERIC from being the partner that Texas partners with to maintain its voter roll quality? Because if the state can’t afford it based on the language in the bill, then we have to find an alternative,” Turner said.
The proposal faced near death multiple times after Rep. Mihaela Elizabeth Plesa, D-Dallas, used procedural challenges against the bill. However, its House sponsor, Richmond Republican Rep. Jacey Jetton, managed to revive the bill twice before bringing it to the floor Tuesday, where it passed 85-61.
The bill “ensures that there are adequate guardrails to ensure we are receiving pertinent information and only sharing pertinent information to identify voters,” Jetton said.
Before the vote, Jetton amended the bill renaming it to the Allen Vera Memorial Act in honor of the Harris County voter fraud activist who was a founder of the conservative group True the Vote. Vera died at the Capitol on May 4 while waiting to testify on election legislation.
Election law has not taken the center stage that it demanded in 2021′s session, when Republican efforts fueled by former president Donald Trump’s baseless allegations of rampant voter fraud in the 2020 election led to Democrat rebellion in the House.
Democrats sabotaged one GOP drive to pass sweeping legislation and later brought House business to a halt by breaking quorum and fleeing the state in protest to the proposed election law. However, their effort faltered after some Democrats gave in.
