Virginia Commissioner of Elections Susan J. Beals withdrew the state from membership in the Election Registration Information Center (ERIC) on May 11, 2023. This made Virginia the seventh state to resign membership in the multi-state voter list maintenance organization so far this year, and the eighth to do so overall. Beals said of the decision to withdraw, “With the recent departures of seven state members, we have reviewed the effectiveness of our continued participation with ERIC. … In short, ERIC’s mandate has expanded beyond that of its initial intent – to improve the accuracy of voter rolls.”
In response, Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR) Executive Director David Becker, who was involved in the development of ERIC, said, “Right now, Virginia has the most accurate voter list it’s ever had in its history. That is going to decline over time. … They know ERIC is helping their voter lists, but they’re succumbing to the disinformation and the pressure that comes with it.”
ERIC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization composed of state election officials. As of 2023, the ERIC website said the organization “[helps] election officials maintain more accurate voter rolls and detect possible illegal voting.”
Louisiana became the first state to withdrawal from ERIC in 2022, followed by Alabama, Florida, Missouri, West Virginia, Iowa, Ohio, and Virginia this year. Election officials in these states named concerns about protection of personal data, partisanship, and strategic disagreements as contributing factors to their respective resignations.
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