How far-right misinformation and the election denial movement led nine states to reject the Electronic Registration Information Center

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

For decades, right-wing activists and lawmakers have exaggerated the threat of voter fraud and election security concerns to promote increasingly restrictive voting laws. Former President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept his 2020 loss, along with his and his allies’ efforts to overturn a free and fair election, drew upon these same ideas, giving rise to a coordinated and well-funded movement dedicated to undermining public trust in elections and laying the groundwork for challenging the results of future elections.

This election denial movement represents a threat to the health of U.S. democracy that has extended beyond the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Over the past several years, American Oversight has investigated and tracked a growing nationwide network of election deniers and their influence on government officials — from the false electoral certificates submitted following the 2020 election and the partisan and discredited post-election “audits” launched by officials in battleground states, to the forward-facing and dangerous attacks on the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC).

American Oversight’s report “The Campaign to Dismantle ERIC” draws upon thousands of pages of public records uncovered through requests and litigation, as well as public reporting and expert input, to tell the story of how the election denial movement targeted ERIC as part of its continued effort to undermine U.S. democracy. In compiling this report, we are grateful for the input and expertise of partner organizations and the continued work of these organizations, reporters, and election experts to expose and counter attacks on one of the leading tools for ensuring accurate voter lists. 

As detailed in our report, American Oversight’s investigation shows how: 

• the same people who tried to overturn the 2020 election worked behind the scenes to influence the ERIC exodus by promoting false claims and conspiracy theories, priming states for post-election chaos that could be used to deny election results in 2024;
• states have scrambled to find viable replacements — none of which provide ERIC’s security, reliability, or effectiveness; and
• election denial activists are now pushing their own ERIC alternatives that would make it easier to challenge the voting rights of thousands.

American Oversight’s work monitoring the election denial movement and allied public officials is far from over. As we enter another presidential election year, we will continue to track and expose the impact of state withdrawals from ERIC and other actions that threaten voting rights and U.S. elections — pillars of American democracy.

—Heather Sawyer
Executive Director, American Oversight

I. Introduction

II. Background

III. Louisiana’s Withdrawal

IV. The Campaign to Destroy ERIC

• Who Is Cleta Mitchell?

V. Other States’ Withdrawals

• Legislative pushes to withdraw states from ERIC

VI. States Scramble to Replace ERIC

VII. Election Denier Ties to ERIC Alternatives

VIII. Conclusion

I. INTRODUCTION

With another monumental election year on the horizon, the election denial movement is poised to continue its effort to undermine U.S. democracy thanks to a sustained campaign against one of the leading tools for ensuring accurate voter lists: the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). Conservative activists and politicians who profess to be gravely concerned about “election integrity” and the state of the country’s voter rolls have, over the past two years, pressured nine Republican-led states to reject ERIC, a bipartisan organization that many of those same state leaders had previously touted.

Through public records requests and litigation, American Oversight has obtained thousands of pages of documents detailing the inner workings of this effort. The documents include evidence revealing how some of the same people active in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election have been working to dismantle ERIC and, in the process, make it easier for voter-roll maintenance systems to be supplanted by individuals and groups dedicated to subverting democracy. 

Until last year, ERIC was a non-controversial nonprofit that quietly helped states clean up their voter rolls by securely comparing voter data. Then, a January 2022 article on a fringe right-wing website set off a cascade of misinformation. A political firestorm, fanned by a coordinated effort on the part of anti-democratic activists, eventually led several states to withdraw.

The story of how ERIC became a political lightning rod is one of far-right misinformation; the cynical opportunism of so-called “election integrity” leaders and activists dedicated to reducing access to the ballot; and the staying power of an election-denial movement that grew out of former President Donald Trump’s false claim that he had won the 2020 presidential election. 

American Oversight began investigating states’ ERIC withdrawals in 2022, soon after Louisiana’s secretary of state suspended his state’s participation in the system by citing unsubstantiated “concerns.”[1] After submitting public records requests to officials who had also abandoned ERIC or raised concerns about the system in more than a dozen other states, including Ohio, American Oversight sued the secretaries of state of Louisiana and Ohio in June 2023 to compel the release of documents. 

The documents American Oversight obtained show how election officials defended ERIC behind the scenes while publicly caving to a pressure campaign led by some of the same people who sought to keep Trump in power in 2020. The rapid exodus that followed led to a scramble to find viable replacements, none of which have so far proven to be effective or secure. 

The documents also provide telling details about how powerful Trump allies and conservative activists took advantage of the vacuum left by the withdrawals to pitch their own severely flawed alternatives, with alarming implications for voting rights. Finally, the documents show election administrators expressing grave concerns that the ERIC exodus would make it harder for them to do their jobs at a time when they are already under unprecedented attack for their work.

Voting in the presidential primaries is weeks away. This coordinated dismantling of ERIC has weakened several states’ ability to maintain accurate voter rolls or push back on false claims of fraud while making it easier for activists to challenge registrations across the country. The result is a heightened risk of significant disenfranchisement — and yet another avenue for the same people who have spent years sowing distrust in American democracy to undermine the 2024 election.

II. BACKGROUND 

ERIC was designed to address a persistent problem for state and local election officials: out-of-date voter rolls. The nonprofit membership organization, [2] which launched in 2012 with start-up funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts,[3] operates a system that allows states to confidentially share data with one another so that local election officials know when someone has moved to another state, is otherwise registered in two places, or has died. [4] The system also identifies eligible but unregistered voters, with a requirement that member states notify eligible citizens about how to register to vote. [5] 

Election deniers often falsely conflate imperfect voter rolls with large-scale voter fraud. Voter fraud, including double voting, is extraordinarily rare. [6] But out-of-date voter rolls do present real problems for elections administrators and voters: Election information sent to the wrong address wastes taxpayer money and election administrators’ time, and out-of-date information means that current voters might not get critical election information. 

A previous attempt to create a multi-state data-sharing system for voter rolls, the Interstate Crosscheck program, collapsed under concerns about its accuracy and security. [7] Crosscheck, developed in 2005, was operated by then-Kansas Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh and later expanded during the tenure of Secretary Kris Kobach, a prominent “election fraud” alarmist. [8] One study found that the system would remove about 300 registrations used to cast legitimate votes for every one double-registration, [9] jeopardizing the voting rights of people who were not, in fact, registered in multiple states. [10] Use of Crosscheck was paused in 2017 for security reasons, [11] and Kansas suspended operation of the program in 2019 as part of a legal settlement over problems with its data security. [12]

While Crosscheck gained a national reputation for faulty data and poor security, [13] ERIC emerged as a bipartisan and reliable way for states to share voter data. The system, designed by a national election and voter-registration expert and an IBM data scientist, [14] pulled in a wider variety of data in order to reduce false matches, and used encryption and one-way hashing to protect sensitive data. [15] By 2019, a bipartisan group of 22 states and the District of Columbia had joined ERIC [16]; by 2022, the program had grown to 31 states and the District of Columbia, [17] helping election officials identify millions of outdated records [18] in their systems and requiring states to notify eligible citizens of how to register to vote. 

ERIC earned the trust of elections administrators across the political spectrum. When a Trump-organized “voter fraud” commission, co-led by Kobach, asked states for reams of voter data in 2017, several states declined to fully participate, with some officials arguing that ERIC was already doing that work, and doing it better. [19] As recently as early 2023, many Republican secretaries of state continued to sing ERIC’s praises. For example, John Merrill, Alabama’s secretary of state until 2023, described ERIC as “one of the most effective tools that we have had in the area of election administration.”[20] 

ERIC operated with a relatively low public profile until January 2022, when the fringe right-wing website Gateway Pundit published a multi-part series of articles maligning it. [21] Gateway Pundit is known for publishing conspiracy theories and false rumors; previously, for instance, it had promoted the “birther” conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was not a U.S. citizen, and it published multiple stories framing innocent people for high-profile crimes.[22] Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft, who wrote the series about ERIC, has been an enthusiastic purveyor of false claims about the 2020 presidential election, [23] including spreading false rumors about two Georgia election workers,[24] resulting in racist abuse and death threats leveled against them.

Gateway Pundit’s ERIC articles similarly were filled with false and unsubstantiated claims [25] and relied heavily on J. Christian Adams, a conservative elections attorney who claims to be the first person  [26] to have publicly criticized ERIC [27] and in late 2021 called ERIC “diabolical” on a conservative radio program. [28] The Gateway Pundit articles alleged ERIC “is essentially a left wing voter registration drive disguised as voter roll clean up”; raised unsubstantiated concerns about unauthorized and partisan access to ERIC data; accused ERIC of being influenced by philanthropist George Soros; and criticized states for removing an insufficient number of voters from the rolls. (Adams later told NPR that he had never intended for his criticisms to lead to states abandoning ERIC, and that it was “better to be in ERIC than not in ERIC.”) [29] ERIC has debunked Gateway Pundit’s false claims, [30] as have several media outlets. [31] For example, while Soros’ Open Society Foundations had previously given money to Pew for voting rights work, [32] NPR reported that “Soros has never had any involvement” in ERIC. [33] 

Despite the outright falsehoods and misleading allegations, Gateway Pundit’s series unleashed a movement to pressure conservative states to abandon ERIC, in the process undermining the single most effective tool to maintain accurate voter rolls and to rebut claims of widespread voter fraud — and, importantly, relieving those states of their obligation to use ERIC’s data to notify eligible citizens of their right to register to vote.

III. LOUISIANA’S WITHDRAWAL

On January 27, 2022, Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin announced that he would be suspending his state’s ERIC membership, referencing “concerns raised by citizens, government watchdog organizations and media reports.”[34] NPR later reported that when Ardoin shared this news with a group of far-right activists shortly after his decision, he earned a sustained round of applause. [35] 

Although Ardoin’s office told Votebeat the decision had “nothing to do with” the Gateway Pundit articles, [36] its timing — just one week after the initial article’s publication and the ensuing spike in mentions of ERIC on far-right social media [37] — raised questions about the influences behind his announcement. In addition, American Oversight obtained records suggesting a strong connection between the initial Gateway Pundit article and Ardoin’s decision. 

On January 21 — the day after the website published its first in the series — an official in the secretary’s office forwarded Ardoin a statement from ERIC’s executive director, Shane Hamlin, that addressed falsehoods in the article. That evening, Ardoin replied to top staff in his office: “I’m likely going to suspend our membership until we can make sure our data isn’t being used or supplie[d] to other organizations,” he wrote, indicating he was aware of both the article and ERIC’s refutation. [i]

The next week, Ardoin and several colleagues had another chance to speak with Hamlin about his stated concerns. American Oversight obtained a recording of the February 2 conference call, which featured a detailed presentation by Hamlin that methodically addressed and debunked false claims about ERIC. Hamlin emphasized the importance of protecting voter data, outlining both the legal protections and information security practices ERIC employs to ensure its data is not — and could not — be accessed by external organizations. [ii]

Those reassurances appear to have had no impact on Ardoin. And Hamlin was not the only person with whom Ardoin was communicating about ERIC. The same evening Ardoin told staff he would likely be suspending Louisiana’s membership, he texted voter-fraud alarmist J. Christian Adams, whom Hoft had quoted several times in sourcing his Gateway Pundit articles. Ardoin asked Adams for a call to discuss ERIC, to which Adams responded that he would be available over the next three days. [iii]

Other news reports and public records unearthed by American Oversight further showed that Ardoin was no stranger to the election denial movement. In May 2021, the secretary’s office exchanged emails with Russ Ramsland, a co-founder of Allied Security Operations Group, about a service agreement with the company for election-related work. [iv] Ramsland had worked with Phil Waldron — a retired Army colonel active in Trump’s attempt to overturn his election loss [38] — in elevating conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. [39] Allied Security (referred to in the documents as Allied Special Operations Group) also had initially been selected to conduct the Arizona Senate’s discredited “audit” of Maricopa County’s 2020 results before being dropped because of negative media coverage. [40] The service agreement with the Louisiana secretary of state’s office is unsigned, but specifies that the company would be “examining the processes and setup involved in the Louisiana Voting Equipment and advis[ing] on security vulnerabilities,” and “may be engaged in further support of other election processes and practices.”[v]

Weeks earlier, Ardoin had invited Waldron and Draza Smith, another prominent election denier and frequent guest on right-wing podcasts, [41] to speak at a December 2021 meeting of the Louisiana Voting Commission, [vi] which had been tasked with recommending [vii] a new voting apparatus to replace the state’s aging voting machines. [42] Accompanying slide decks produced to American Oversight reveal Smith’s presentation included recommendations to ban voting by mail except for military members and in a few other special circumstances, and to prohibit use of electronic ballots. [viii] In his 90-minute speech, Waldron advocated counting paper ballots by hand, [ix] a popular conspiracy-theory-inspired proposal that experts say is costlier, more time-consuming, and less accurate. [43] 

The documents obtained by American Oversight demonstrate Louisiana officials knew Waldron’s presentation was full of falsehoods, but still gave him a platform. In an email exchange among state officials, including Ardoin, the week before Waldron presented to the commission, First Assistant Secretary of State Nancy Landry — recently elected as secretary of state — wrote that Waldron’s presentation was “full of erroneous information” and asked the group, “Who is going to present the rebuttal?” John Tobler, the deputy secretary of state for communications, agreed that the presentation revealed Waldron’s “foolishness.” Tobler added, “Joel & Kyle discussed in person,” likely referring to Deputy Secretary Joel Watson and Ardoin, and said “they feel like we should just send the info to the Senate & let him make himself look like an alarmist.”[x] The records also indicate the secretary of state’s office offered to reimburse both for their travel to Louisiana. [xi]

Ardoin and Smith also communicated regularly — including over text on the day the first Gateway Pundit article was published, and on January 27, the day Ardoin formally announced Louisiana’s withdrawal from ERIC. That day, Smith told Ardoin she was working on a review of Louisiana’s voting system and sent him data related to state voter turnout. [xii] 

Other public records indicate that, months later, Ardoin was also in contact with Cleta Mitchell, a longtime proponent of voting restrictions [44] who aided President Trump in his attempt to remain in power in 2020. [45] In June, Ardoin emailed Mitchell and another prominent voter-fraud alarmist, Hans von Spakovsky, to ask for input on programming for the upcoming National Association of Secretaries of State conference.xiii That same month, Ardoin participated in a recording of Mitchell’s podcast, “Who’s Counting,”[xiv] which she used to regularly criticize ERIC and which NPR has described as “a central hub for stolen election narratives.”[46]

Since Louisiana’s withdrawal from ERIC, Ardoin has continued to insist he made the decision based on privacy concerns, but has failed to clarify what those concerns are or to provide any other justification. In March 2023, for example, Ardoin said he had “a responsibility to protect my constituents’ personal data, and being a part of ERIC was no longer in the best interest of our citizens.” [47] Ardoin’s office declined interviews on the topic with NPR and [48] Politico, [49] and offered incomplete answers to questions from Votebeat. [50] When asked publicly by American Oversight in May 2023 to explain what concerns prompted his state to leave ERIC, Ardoin replied, “No comment.”[51]

IV. THE CAMPAIGN TO DESTROY ERIC

Prior to 2022, questions about ERIC had cropped up in certain corners of the right-wing election denial space. The month after the 2020 election, the election integrity group the Amistad Project — a project of the Thomas More Society, an anti-abortion legal group involved in efforts to cast doubt on the 2020 results [52] — had published a report urging participating states to audit ERIC. [53] In August 2021, vocal election skeptic Janel Brandtjen, at the time the chair of the Wisconsin Assembly’s elections committee, asked the administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission for information about “what benefits ERIC provides to us.”[54] ERIC was also on the radar of J. Christian Adams’ Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), which sued the District of Columbia Board of Elections for ERIC records in 2021. [55]

But it was not until the Gateway Pundit series that the anti-ERIC campaign gained traction. Indeed, several right-wing groups sympathetic to election conspiracy theories had, in 2021, still publicly supported ERIC. [56] After Hoft’s ERIC articles and Secretary Ardoin’s suspension of Louisiana’s membership, however, the manufactured ERIC controversy took off in far-right circles, providing activists who had previously worked to discredit the 2020 election results with a new opportunity to elevate their specious concerns about election systems — and to attack ERIC’s voter outreach requirement. [57] 

The most prominent of these activists was Cleta Mitchell, who runs a coalition of election denial groups called the Election Integrity Network. Under Mitchell’s leadership, local “election integrity” groups across the country started raising the alarm about ERIC and organizing coordinated pressure campaigns on legislators and election officials. [58] One particularly enthusiastic activist who joined forces with Mitchell was Pennsylvania-based Heather Honey, who had worked on the Arizona Senate’s so-called “audit” of Maricopa County’s election results. [59] Honey founded Haystack Investigations, a firm with which lead “audit” contractor Cyber Ninjas subcontracted, [60] as well as Verity Vote, a group that claims to conduct “election integrity research and investigations.” [61] Verity Vote falsely claimed Pennsylvania’s 2020 election involved more than 100,000 unaccounted-for votes, [62] and before the 2022 midterms alleged the state had sent ballots to nearly 250,000 unverified voters. [63]

In June 2022, Honey presented a Verity Vote report on ERIC at a secret summit for secretaries of state convened by Mitchell, stating that ERIC posed a “threat to election integrity” and that its requirements result in “significant swelling of the voter rolls.” [64] The report also made connections between ERIC and the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research, which received grants from Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan and became the subject of 2020 election conspiracy theories. [65] Similar allegations about “Zuckerbucks” and ERIC being a “covert method of registering targeted voters” had been raised, including on Mitchell’s podcast, by Michigan activist Patrice Johnson, the head of Pure Integrity Michigan Elections. [66] 

Jim Womack, the head of North Carolina Election Integrity Team, was also present at Mitchell’s summit, as were secretaries of state for Louisiana, West Virginia, Alabama, Florida, and Missouri, according to a letter from Womack to state legislators obtained by the investigative watchdog organization Documented. [67] The anti-ERIC activists in attendance soon took their concerns to election officials and state legislators. On the same day as the summit, Honey spoke with the general counsel in the West Virginia secretary of state’s office, Donald Kersey, regarding concerns about ERIC data sharing. [xv] In July, Womack sent his letter, with Mitchell copied, [68] urging North Carolina lawmakers — who had recently authorized the state board of elections to join ERIC for one year [69] — to prevent the sharing of certain data with the organization. 

Election denial activists’ reasons for opposing ERIC were in line with the same specious claims about data security and partisan funding raised by the Gateway Pundit articles. For example, American Oversight obtained documents showing that in February 2022, Florida’s then-Secretary of State Laurel Lee met with a group of activists and election conspiracists — including Jeff O’Donnell, Wesley Huff, and Draza Smith [70] — regarding ERIC; in advance of the meeting, voter fraud activists sent Lee’s office a report with false claims about Soros’ involvement. [xiv] 

Many of the Gateway Pundit’s allegations were also eventually reflected in the stated rationales of state leaders upon leaving the consortium. Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd referred to “ERIC’s partisan tendencies,” [71] while West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner similarly referred to “the opportunity for partisanship.” [72] Officials in Alabama and Florida cited vague concerns about information security [73] that resembled claims from the Gateway Pundit series, which had alleged, with no evidence, security lapses connected to the network. In fact, according to ERIC Executive Director Shane Hamlin, ERIC has never had a security breach. [74]  

The most powerful throughline in activists’ opposition to ERIC, however, is an objection to the group’s proactive voter registration efforts. For decades, the myth of widespread voter fraud has been used to promote new voting restrictions, like ID or proof-of-citizenship requirements, and to push back against measures designed to make voting more accessible, such as increased use of mail-in voting or the expansion of early voting. [75] At the heart of those efforts is the clear aversion to greater voter participation, and anti-ERIC activists have not hidden their antipathy for ERIC’s outreach requirement for contacting eligible but unregistered citizens, an obligation states took on when they voluntarily joined ERIC. During a September 2022 appearance on Mitchell’s podcast, Honey said ERIC was “inflating the rolls with people who don’t want to be registered.” [76] Documented obtained an audio recording from a March 2023 conservative conference in Pennsylvania in which Honey made similar claims that the “impact of ERIC is that instead of cleaning up our voter rolls … they add more people to it.”[77]

Conservative state officials embraced those arguments as they considered leaving ERIC. According to notes obtained by Documented from a February 2023 meeting of the Florida Fair Elections Coalition, which is part of Mitchell’s network, Secretary Byrd emphasized his state was not using ERIC for “bloating the voter rolls,” adding that the “[n]otion that it is up to election officials to drive turnout is not something I philosophically agree with.”[78] In withdrawing his state from ERIC, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft objected in particular to ERIC’s requirement of “a solicitation to individuals who already had an opportunity to register to vote and made the conscious decision to not be registered.” LaRose, the Ohio secretary of state, said states should not be “forced to meet specific requirements,” such as voter outreach.

A significant impact of the exodus from ERIC may be the suggestion that our elections are not secure — especially to those who, primed by former President Trump and his allies, already doubt the integrity of the electoral process. As Merrill, the former Alabama secretary of state, said about attacks on ERIC and other efforts to cast doubt on election systems: “I am concerned because it breeds potential problems in people’s minds. When that happens it can actually put people in a defensive posture and think if their candidate loses, ‘Well then the reason my candidate lost is my candidate got cheated.’”[79]

V. OTHER STATES’ WITHDRAWALS

Louisiana’s withdrawal in 2022 set the stage for a fast-growing anti-ERIC campaign, resulting in a wave of states exiting in early 2023. Alabama’s new secretary of state, Wes Allen, campaigned on a pledge to withdraw the state from ERIC [90] and followed through by pulling Alabama out of the group immediately upon assuming office in January 2023. [91]

In March of 2023, after Trump called for Republican governors to leave ERIC, [92] Republican-led states began to withdraw in a more coordinated fashion. On March 6, Florida, [93] West Virginia, [94] and Missouri [95] all announced decisions to leave, citing one another’s same-day withdrawals. Less than two weeks later, Ohio [96] and Iowa  [97] joined the exodus, despite — just the month before — both states’ secretaries of state having praised ERIC. Iowa’s Paul Pate lauded ERIC as “a godsend” [98] and Ohio’s Frank LaRose raved that ERIC was “one of the best fraud-fighting tools that we have” and that it had “provided great benefit for us.”[99]

Once a critical mass of states had backed out of ERIC, some Republican voting officials began relying on the retreat itself as a reason to leave the group. In May, Virginia — which in 2012 under a Republican governor had been one of the founding members of the organization — became the eighth state to leave ERIC, [100] with the state’s commissioner of elections, Susan Beals, citing the “increasing and uncertain costs resulting from the exit of ~20% of ERIC members.”[101] In July, Texas’ secretary of state submitted notice that Texas would be withdrawing from ERIC by mid-October to comply with new state legislation. A spokesperson told the Texas Tribune, “As fewer states are participating, the costs are increasing and the amount of data we’re going to receive will be reduced.” [102]

The documents American Oversight uncovered from these states reveal the artifice of their public explanations for leaving ERIC. Technocrats and political appointees recognized the benefits of ERIC and the risks of the misinformation surrounding it, but receptive offices continued to meet with far-right election deniers as the anti-ERIC campaign gained momentum in 2022 and early 2023, with some offices even communicating with activists within days or weeks of announced withdrawals.

Florida, which had baselessly criticized ERIC for data security concerns and supposed partisan leanings, had long been targeted by those seeking to insert themselves into election administration. In March 2023, just four days after Florida withdrew from ERIC, records show the right-wing legal group PILF, headed by J. Christian Adams, emailed the Florida Secretary of State to offer “voter list maintenance leads like what may have been provided by [ERIC].”[xvii] PILF has a long history of publishing misleading reports on voter fraud that disintegrate under scrutiny. [103] Public records show that at the same time, the West Virginia secretary of state’s office had been in touch with the Virginia Election Integrity Working Group, which was working “to put pressure on our State Board of Elections to end Virginia’s membership agreement with ERIC,” citing concerns about the sharing of personal information with outside groups. [xviii] 

In Missouri, where the secretary of state cited a handful of reasons for exiting ERIC, including the “opportunity for partisanship in voter registration and list maintenance,” public documents reveal state officials’ high-level contact with election deniers the month before the state’s withdrawal. In February 2023, activist Heather Honey emailed the secretary’s office to advocate for “Return[ing] Control and Management of State Data Back to the States.”[xix] Honey offered to research a transition plan and shared with officials National Change of Address data as well as reports containing baseless accusations; records obtained by American Oversight reveal that she and her group Verity Vote met with the office that same month. [xx] 

Records from behind the scenes in Missouri, Ohio, and Texas highlight competing dynamics: concern among top election administrators about exiting ERIC even as the states’ elected officials moved to do so. Emails American Oversight obtained from January 2022 show Trish Vincent, Secretary Ashcroft’s chief of staff, characterized the first of the Gateway Pundit’s articles about ERIC as “horrible and misleading.”[xxi] In Texas, an assistant secretary of state emailed state Rep. Matt Shaheen’s chief of staff in January 2023 to respond to a question about ERIC, debunking the Gateway Pundit’s misinformation and explaining the benefits ERIC membership provided Texas. “ERIC helps Texas keep its voter rolls clean, and is currently the only way that we can get information on voters who are registered in Texas and in another state,” he wrote. “This is an important election integrity tool.”xxii Two months later, the day Ohio withdrew, then-state Director of Elections Amanda Grandjean wrote to ERIC Executive Director Shane Hamlin, “As you know, I really worked as hard as I possibly could to avoid this.”[xxiii]

VI. STATES SCRAMBLE TO REPLACE ERIC

As more states left ERIC in 2023 in a bid to appease the far right, they faced an obvious consequence of their hasty retreat: The lack of any solid plan to replace ERIC. Public reporting and records obtained by American Oversight paint a picture of officials scrambling to replicate the benefits of ERIC membership, failing to adequately prepare election officials, and in several cases seeking key information or working on new programs well after they had made the decision to withdraw. 

More than two months after Alabama Secretary of State Allen took office and announced the state’s exit, the state’s director of elections emailed Amy Cohen, the executive director of the National Association of State Election Directors, asking how to obtain National Change of Address (NCOA) data — a critical component of voter roll list maintenance. [xxvi] In August 2023, three months after announcing its withdrawal, Virginia purchased the Limited Access Death Master File (LADMF). [xxvii] The LADMF contains data with the Social Security numbers of individuals whose deaths were reported — data used to clean voter rolls that is accessible through ERIC. The next month, the state paid $28,960 to SysAudits for the sole purpose of auditing LADMF data compliance, underscoring the high cost of withdrawing from ERIC. [xxviii]

Election authorities and experts in Missouri were also concerned about the lack of a clear plan for voter roll maintenance following the state’s exit in March.111 That month, the state’s Association of County Clerks and Election Authorities issued a statement calling on Missouri to “pursue an alternative resource” that would give local officials the necessary tools “to ensure secure, accurate, and efficient elections.” [xxix] Missouri Director of Elections Chrissy Peters forwarded the email to Secretary Ashcroft and other high-level officials, writing that the secretary’s office had informed local election authorities it would partner with the Social Security Administration and NCOA, but that “details on these reports would come at a later date.” The records obtained by American Oversight reveal that guidance about Missouri’s plan for post-ERIC list maintenance was not provided to local authorities until June — three months after its withdrawal. [xxx]

The creation of new cross-state data-sharing agreements — an effort led in part by the Ohio secretary of state’s office — seems to have begun only after Ohio and Iowa had announced the suspension of their ERIC memberships, less than two weeks after Florida, Missouri, and West Virginia had done the same. On March 22, 2023, Ohio Elections Director Amanda Grandjean sent an email to officials in several states, requesting the convening of a “working group of states that would like to discuss ideas for securely sharing voter history and other relevant data for the purposes of identifying and investigating potential cross-state voter fraud.”[xxxi] The working group, which comprised multiple sub-groups such as the Data Sharing Specifications Subcommittee and the Legal MOU Development Subcommittee, met regularly between March and June — after states had already left ERIC — to review potential data sources and discuss legal options for data-sharing agreements. [xxxii]

The working group’s emails from the spring of 2023 provide a glimpse into how complicated it is to create a viable alternative to ERIC. Comments in the margins of a draft memorandum of understanding for working group participants, circulated by the Ohio secretary of state’s office in May, addressed a number of open questions with which states were grappling as they considered data-sharing options, such as the legality of sharing confidential active and inactive voter files, state rules about entering into data-sharing compacts, and how to manage information about potentially deceased voters. [xxxiii] A central concern among the officials preparing those data-sharing agreements appears to have been the secure transfer, retention, and destruction of sensitive voter data: A meeting summary from June included an action item urging participating states to designate a cybersecurity point of contact. [xxxiv]

In June, Georgia and South Carolina signed the first of several interstate data-sharing agreements. [xxxv] Two months later, Georgia signed a similar agreement with Alabama to establish “a process for each State to improve the accuracy of each State’s voter registration list by identifying duplicate voter registration.” [xxxvi] Public reporting shows several other states have finalized such agreements, including Ohio agreements with West Virginia, Virginia, and Florida; [xxxvii, [112] Virginia agreements with Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C.; [xxxviii, [113] Alabama agreements with Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, and Tennessee; [xxxix], [114] and Florida agreements with Georgia and West Virginia. [xl] American Oversight also obtained a draft memorandum of understanding between Missouri and Florida, [xli] yet another link in the increasingly complicated web of interstate agreements aimed at replicating ERIC’s partnership — but with each agreement subject to its own terms and security arrangements without any common quality control.

Unlike ERIC, which was conceived in 2009 but not operable until 2012, [115] the cross-state voter-roll maintenance plans appear to have been designed in a matter of months — with a host of issues still to be worked out. The security and effectiveness of the quickly assembled patchwork of data-sharing agreements remains unclear. [116] Reporting by NPR in October 2023 noted the data-sharing agreements appeared to lack the critical DMV data that makes ERIC reliable and effective, including Social Security numbers and other driver’s license information. [117] As one former county clerk in Utah told NPR, “These states have decided that instead of using a wheel, they’re going to invent a spherical device that will allow them to easily transport and roll items from A to B.”

VII. ELECTION DENIER TIES TO ERIC ALTERNATIVES

The dangers of states’ hasty abandonment of ERIC is not limited to administrative functions or data security. The resulting void has provided fertile ground for activists and private interests — including many of the same people involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election — who see an opportunity to continue to undermine trust in U.S. democracy by inserting themselves into voter roll maintenance and election administration. At the same time, outside groups and private companies supported by election deniers have developed new products that experts warn will make it easier for voter-fraud vigilantes to challenge and threaten the voting rights of thousands. 

In meetings with top election officials, Cleta Mitchell and associates in her Election Integrity Network have pushed to be more involved in voter roll maintenance. American Oversight obtained a May 2023 email from Mitchell to Donald Kersey, the West Virginia secretary of state’s general counsel, and Chief of Staff Chuck Flannery: “You made reference last week to some databases that your office and clerks used in your efforts to clean voter rolls and to maintain their accuracy,” Mitchell wrote. “Do you mind sending me those databases and any information about them, so I can forward them to the National Working Group on Voter Rolls? I’ve had some questions from participants who’d like to know more and follow up about obtaining those databases.” [xlii] The records do not contain a reply from the secretary of state’s office, but it is notable that such data-sharing with outside groups is what ERIC had falsely been accused of doing.

A week earlier, Secretary Warner had spoken at a convening of the Voter Rolls National Working Group, hosted by the Virginia Institute for Public Policy, about steps West Virginia was taking to maintain list accuracy. [xliii] Reporting in May 2023 indicated Mitchell’s Election Integrity Network was being partially folded into the Virginia Institute for Public Policy (VIPP), [118] which is a member of the State Policy Network, an alliance of more than 100 think tanks that regularly advocate for extreme right-wing policies. [119] Several VIPP board members are affiliated with the Council for National Policy,  [120] an ultra-secretive group of conservative activists, [121] or have ties to the Charles Koch Foundation and the Federalist Society. [122] 

That same week, Secretary Warner and his general counsel, Donald Kersey, had presented at a webinar about post-ERIC plans to clean voter rolls, moderated by Hayden Ludwig of Restoration of America, who authored several anti-ERIC reports published by Capital Research Center in late 2022.[123] The discussion was hosted by the Election Integrity Network and Virginia Fair Elections, a coalition that includes “election integrity” groups such as VIPP, the Amistad Project, and Conservative Partnership Institute.[124] A June 2023 email also illustrates the extent to which, with ERIC out of the picture, Warner’s office was working with VIPP and Mitchell’s network: In the email, the Election Integrity Network’s Julia Hecht mentioned that Kersey had requested a handout that had been shared with VIPP’s voter rolls working group by Rick Richards, the founder of a company known as EagleAI NETwork. Hecht sent Kersey a copy of the handout as well as a recording of a meeting that VIPP and Election Integrity Network representatives had held with EagleAI. [xliv]

EagleAI, which was created in the summer of 2022 by Richards, a retired Georgia medical doctor, [125] is a database used by right-wing activists on the hunt for voter fraud. [126] Reporting by Documented found that Valid Vote, EagleAI’s associated nonprofit, was formed around the same time by Compass Legal Group, a firm associated with Mitchell. [127] EagleAI materials assert that the software will become “the tool of reckoning across the nation,”[128] and an EagleAI planning document refers to the software as “[E]xcel on steroids.” [xlv]

Election experts have uniformly been unimpressed by EagleAI. Georgia Elections Director Blake Evans told NBC News, “EagleAI draws inaccurate conclusions and then presents them as if they are evidence of wrongdoing,” adding that the program “offers zero additional value to Georgia’s existing list maintenance procedures.” [129] Despite these vulnerabilities, EagleAI and its proponents, including Mitchell, have argued for state and local election officials to use the company’s voter roll management software as an “alternative” to ERIC, with Valid Vote reportedly setting a goal of raising $2.1 million in advance of the 2024 elections. [130] 

In early December 2023, Georgia’s Columbia County agreed to use EagleAI [131] despite warnings by voting-rights experts and the state elections board that the system could not be trusted to provide reliable information. [132] Records obtained by American Oversight include an email from the Columbia County elections director to Richards just two months earlier asking about an alleged “hack” that had been mentioned at a county election board meeting. Richards acknowledged that EagleAI servers became inoperative “possibly due to an attack on the Windows server software. Activity did not breech [sic] the EagleAI NETwork software.” Richards said in his email that the company took security “very seriously” and noted that EagleAI “contains only public available data” — a shortcoming shared by the inter-state agreements seeking to replicate ERIC, whose secure use of information from non-public DMV databases makes it reliable and effective. [xlvi]

EagleAI is not the only tool that voter-fraud activists may use to crowdsource data for the purposes of issuing voter challenges. Reporting suggests EagleAI interacts with VoteRef.com, [133] an online project run by Gina Swoboda, the executive director of the Voter Reference Foundation and a former organizer of Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign in Arizona. [134] Swoboda’s website, designed to be a resource for people who want to inspect voter rolls for fraud, includes voter information from 32 states and the District of Columbia. [135] Voting-rights and privacy advocates have voiced concerns that, like EagleAI, VoteRef could be used not just to compromise individual privacy, but also to intimidate voters, cause mass cancellations of voting registrations, and inundate local election offices with burdensome, time-consuming, and inaccurate challenges. [136] Mitchell also appears to be involved in facilitating connections between VoteRef and election officials: Records obtained by American Oversight show that Mitchell introduced Swoboda to Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray in January 2023 and corresponded over text about voter identification records and Gray’s statements [137] in support of auditing ballot counts by hand. [xlvii] Emails indicate Swoboda had contacted Gray and his office multiple times throughout the year. [xlviii]

Information gleaned from VoteRef has fueled numerous voter challenges and fraud allegations. In February 2023, Ian Camacho — the research director at Look Ahead America, a group that supported defendants facing charges for participating in the January 6 insurrection [138] — contacted a Texas Senate staffer asking about the status of dozens of challenges submitted by an “anonymous tipster” known as Totes Legit Votes. [xlix] According to an email from the staffer to the Texas secretary of state’s office, the tipster had flagged “approximately 75” alleged double voters. [l] The secretary’s office responded that its Elections Division had received multiple emails from Totes Legit Votes, but that because of the high volume, the office was not sending acknowledgments in response to each message. [li]

Records of similar complaints lodged by Camacho and Totes Legit Votes with the Missouri secretary of state’s office in March suggest that they had used the VoteRef database. [lii] Camacho also cited VoteRef data in an email to election officials in Wake County, North Carolina, alleging instances of double voting. [liii] The records from Missouri indicate that officials quickly debunked several of the allegations, [liv] even cautioning staff not to click on links shared by Totes Legit Votes. [lv] Other documents reveal several requests from the Voter Reference Foundation for data from the Wyoming, West Virginia, and Rhode Island secretaries of state. [lvi]

In Arizona, state Sens. Wendy Rogers, a vocal election denier, and John Kavanagh both separately emailed Swoboda to ask for her thoughts about another voter data monitoring software called Omega4America that was being pushed by fraud activists.lvii According to the Texas Tribune, the software was initially funded by MyPillow CEO and prominent election denier Mike Lindell. [139] The program’s creator, Jay Valentine, is a frequent contributor to Gateway Pundit and was active in post-2020 election denial efforts, including by pushing his “Fractal programming technology” as a way to identify supposed voter-roll issues and authoring a report used by government officials and activists seeking to cast doubt on Wisconsin’s 2020 election results. [140] 

According to documents obtained by American Oversight, Valentine also appears to be trying to step into the empty space ERIC once filled. In March 2023, Valentine sent a letter to Texas Sen. Bryan Hughes, who sponsored the legislation pulling Texas out of ERIC, offering to demonstrate how Omega4America’s Fractal technology could be used “to study Texas voter rolls and clean them of phantom voters and fake addresses.” [lviii] Valentine also pitched the system to Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson in May as “the most comprehensive, scalable voter roll management, reporting and monitoring system in production today.”[lix] Other documents obtained by American Oversight and reported on by NPR [141] reveal that in August, Nelson shared with top staff an “[i]nteresting article” written by Valentine about his Fractal technology. [lx]

Notably, none of the replacement programs or interstate agreements contain provisions aimed at increasing voter participation. Despite the demonstrated effectiveness of ERIC — and the unproven claims, uncertain costs, and alarming opportunities for voter intimidation inherent in programs like EagleAI and VoteRef — election deniers are fiercely advocating for ERIC replacements that would advance their own anti-democratic agenda, and perhaps line their pockets.

VIII. CONCLUSION

As states continue to struggle to find or devise adequate alternatives to ERIC, the full repercussions of their hasty abandonment of the partnership have yet to be realized. But with the 2024 primary elections just around the corner, election experts and voting rights advocates are concerned about the impact, particularly as activists and groups with a demonstrated antipathy toward widening access to the ballot attempt to fill the void.

“We are concerned that conspiracy theorists have targeted ERIC, and that since they started doing so, nine states have left ERIC — often without the prior knowledge or approval of local officials who have depended on the program for years,” stated the Brennan Center for Justice. “We are equally concerned that state officials and election denial activists are developing and considering other list maintenance tools that appear to be far less reliable and that may risk: 1) intimidating and disenfranchising voters; 2) generating misinformation about the accuracy of our elections; and 3) compromising data privacy.”

Voter fraud in the United States is extremely rare. In 2007, the Brennan Center found fraud incident rates to be between 0.0003 percent and 0.0025 percent [142]; a 2014 study by the Washington Post found that out of more than 1 billion ballots cast between 2000 and 2014, there were only 31 credible instances of impersonation fraud. [143] Other reputable studies have consistently concluded that incidents of fraud are negligible. [144] But for decades, overblown claims have been used by conservative activists and strategists to justify new voting restrictions and to push back at attempts to make it easier for people to cast ballots. [145] Former President Trump’s lies about a stolen election took the long-simmering myth of widespread voter fraud and turned it into an existential threat not only to the efficient and safe administration of elections, but also to American democracy itself.

“Building and maintaining confidence in our elections has never been more important, and trusted, bipartisan resources such as ERIC help do exactly that,” said nonpartisan Secure Democracy. By bowing to conspiracy theories and baseless claims about ERIC, leaders of the nine states that have withdrawn from ERIC have made it harder for their officials to ensure that elections are administered efficiently and safely — and have increased the potential for post-election chaos that can fuel more false claims of fraud based on faulty analyses of voter lists. “Abandoning ERIC will not only needlessly create extra work for election officials, making it more challenging for them to ensure that their voter rolls are up to date, but also harms voters by subjecting them to potential removal from the registration rolls based on unreliable information,” said Jonathan Diaz, the director of Campaign Legal Center. He continued, “The exodus from ERIC threatens to make our democracy less secure, eroding voters’ confidence in the system as we head into a crucial election year.”

While instances of actual fraud remain few and far between, the potential for disenfranchisement thanks to overzealous activists — who either believe the lies about a stolen election or see the partisan advantage in stoking those fears — is of grave concern. That threat is particularly acute for people of color and members of marginalized communities whose voting rights have long been targeted or who are more vulnerable to challenges. “We commend those election officials who have resisted these calls to withdraw despite efforts from election deniers to push conspiracy theories and faulty systems to replace ERIC, many of which will put voters at risk of being improperly removed from registration lists and having their their personal information leaked or misused,” said Sylvia Albert, the director of Common Cause’s Voting and Elections Program. 

As Voting Rights Lab has noted, at the same time ERIC has become a punching bag for right-wing election deniers, “many state legislatures are manufacturing new reasons for removing eligible voters from the rolls and/or creating new systems that lack safeguards protecting against the wrongful removal of eligible voters — instead of focusing on ways to ensure that every eligible voter registers to vote.” [146] The objections to ERIC’s proactive outreach to unregistered voters is a glaring reminder of the choice not to prioritize increasing access to the ballot.

This is a critical juncture for American democracy. The election denial movement did not disband after the failed coup of January 6, 2021, and it is rooted in the same forces that for decades have fought against efforts to widen access to the ballot and have used baseless claims of fraud to render illegitimate the will of voters. “We have many systems that keep our elections safe, secure, and fair,” added Albert of Common Cause. “It is crucial to combat disinformation that is rooted in false narratives and designed to harm voters.” 

A central task in countering that disinformation is exposing the communications of government officials, including with whom they have met and what they have said behind closed doors. The government records detailed in this report reveal the hollowness of state leaders’ public explanations for leaving ERIC, their failures in fulfilling their obligations to find replacements for such a vital tool, and the outside individuals and groups pushing ERIC’s demise for political or financial reasons. Our system of government depends upon an engaged and informed electorate. As another monumental election year approaches, the American people deserve to know how lies about the last election continue to threaten the health and strength of our democracy.

GOVERNMENT RECORDS OBTAINED BY AMERICAN OVERSIGHT

i. LA-SOS-22-0418-A: “Louisiana Secretary of State Records and Communications Regarding Voting Systems Commission Meeting,” 231–233, received by American Oversight June 23, 2023.

ii. LA-SOS-23-0660-A: “Louisiana Secretary of State Recording of Call Between Staff and ERIC Executive Director,” received by American Oversight July 26, 2023. 

iii. LA-SOS-22-0482-A: “Louisiana Secretary of State Records Regarding Voting Systems Commission Meeting,” 16, received by American Oversight November 14, 2023.
iv. LA-SOS-22-0230-A: “Louisiana Secretary of State Communications with Specific External Entities,” 1–12, received by American Oversight June 27, 2023. 

v. LA-SOS-22-0230-A: “Louisiana Secretary of State Communications with Specific External Entities,” 12. 

vi. LA-SOS-22-0230-A: “Louisiana Secretary of State Communications with Specific External Entities,” 28–30; LA-SOS-22-0482-A: “Louisiana Secretary of State Records Regarding Voting Systems Commission Meeting,” 1, 687.

vii. “LA-SOS-22-0482-A: “Louisiana Secretary of State Records Regarding Voting Systems Commission Meeting,” 4.

viii. “LA-SOS-22-0482-A: “Louisiana Secretary of State Records Regarding Voting Systems Commission Meeting,” 671–686.

ix. LA-SOS-22-0230-A: “Louisiana Secretary of State Communications with Specific External Entities,” 36. 

x. LA-SOS-22-0230-A: “Louisiana Secretary of State Communications with Specific External Entities,” 27–28. 

xi. LA-SOS-22-0482-A: “Louisiana Secretary of State Records Regarding Voting Systems Commission Meeting,” 1, 4–5, 442, 665.

xii. LA-SOS-22-0482-A: “Louisiana Secretary of State Records Regarding Voting Systems Commission Meeting,” 4–14.

xiii. LA-SOS-22-0418-A: “Louisiana Secretary of State Records and Communications Regarding Voting Systems Commission Meeting,” 143.

xiv. LA-SOS-22-0418-A: “Louisiana Secretary of State Records and Communications Regarding Voting Systems Commission Meeting,” 217.

xv. WV-SOS-23-0760-A: “West Virginia Secretary of State Communications with Anti-ERIC Activists,” 35, received by American Oversight October 11, 2023.

xvi. FL-DOS-23-0046-A: “Florida Department of State Communications with Specific Entities,” 19, 128–129; received by American Oversight August 22, 2023.

xvii. FL-DOS-23-0298-A: “Florida Department of State Communications with Representatives of Public Interest Legal Foundation and Meeting Records,” 5–7, received by American Oversight April 20, 2023.

xviii. WV-SOS-23-0427-A: “West Virginia Secretary of State Communications and Assessments About the State’s Withdrawal from ERIC,” 67–68, received by American Oversight August 21, 2023. 

xix. MO-SOS-23-0422-A: “Missouri Secretary of State Email Communications About Withdrawal from ERIC,” 2153, received by American Oversight July 7, 2023.

xx. MO-SOS-23-0422-A: “Missouri Secretary of State Email Communications About Withdrawal from ERIC,” 2153–2154.

xxi. MO-SOS-23-1071-A: “Missouri Secretary of State Communications with Anti-ERIC Activists,” 322, received by American Oversight August 24, 2023.

xxii. TX-SOS-23-0425-A: “Texas Secretary of State Communications and Assessments About State’s Withdrawal from ERIC,” 408, received by American Oversight September 8, 2023. 

xxiii. OH-SOS-23-0424-A: “Ohio Secretary of State Communications and Assessments about Withdrawal from ERIC,” 4, received by American Oversight August 25, 2023. 

xxiv. TX-SOS-23-0769-A: “Texas Secretary of State Records Related to ERIC Replacements,” 29, received by American Oversight October 9, 2023. 

xxv. MO-SOS-23-0421-A: “Missouri Secretary of State Email Communications About Withdrawal from ERIC,” 36–40, received by American Oversight August 10, 2023.

xxvi. AL-SOS-23-0675, 23-0676-A: “Alabama Secretary of State Records Regarding Withdrawal from ERIC,” 151, received by American Oversight October 11, 2023.

xxvii. VA-DOE-23-1084-A: “Virginia Department of Elections Records Regarding ERIC Alternative,” 20, 40–42; received by American Oversight November 10, 2023.

xxviii. VA-DOE-23-1084-A: “Virginia Department of Elections Records Regarding ERIC Alternative,” 21–23, 40–41.

xxix. MO-SOS-23-0421-A: “Missouri Secretary of State Email Communications About Withdrawal from ERIC,” 1391–1392.

xxx. MO-SOS-23-0421-A: “Missouri Secretary of State Email Communications About Withdrawal from ERIC,” 779, 1391.

xxxi. MO-SOS-23-0422-A: “Missouri Secretary of State Email Communications About Withdrawal from ERIC,” 1091.

xxxii. MO-SOS-23-0421-A: “Missouri Secretary of State Email Communications About Withdrawal from ERIC,” 2598-2601, 2615-2620, 2630-2635, 2638-2639, 2775-2778, 2798-2805.

xxxiii. MO-SOS-23-0911-A: “Missouri Secretary of State Communications with Anti-ERIC Activist Groups,” 23–28, received by American Oversight September 29, 2023.

xxxiv. MO-SOS-23-0421-A: “Missouri Secretary of State Email Communications About Withdrawal from ERIC,” 2572–2573.

xxxv. GA-SOS-23-1076-A: “Georgia Secretary of State Records Regarding ERIC Alternatives,” 6–8, received by American Oversight November 29, 2023.

xxxvi. GA-SOS-23-1076-A: “Georgia Secretary of State Records Regarding ERIC Alternatives,” 1–3. 

xxxvii. VA-DOE-23-1084-A: “Virginia Department of Elections Records Regarding ERIC Alternative,” 47–51; FL-DOS-23-0767-A: “Florida Department of State Records Regarding ERIC Replacements,” 6–7, received by American Oversight November 17, 2023. 

xxxviii. VA-DOE-23-1084-A: “Virginia Department of Elections Records Regarding ERIC Alternative,” 36–39, 43–46, 52–63.

xxxix. FL-DOS-23-0767-A: “Florida Department of State Records Regarding ERIC Replacements,” 1–3.

xl. FL-DOS-23-0767-A: “Florida Department of State Records Regarding ERIC Replacements,” 4–5, 8–10. 

xli. MO-SOS-23-1079-A: “Missouri Secretary of State Records Regarding ERIC Alternatives,” 743–744, received by American Oversight August 24, 2023. 

xlii. WV-SOS-23-0427-A: “West Virginia Secretary of State Communications and Assessments About the State’s Withdrawal from ERIC,” 6, received by American Oversight August 21, 2023.

xliii. WV-SOS-23-0427-A: “West Virginia Secretary of State Communications and Assessments About the State’s Withdrawal from ERIC,” 134.

xliv. WV-SOS-23-0427-A: “West Virginia Secretary of State Communications and Assessments About the State’s Withdrawal from ERIC,” 8.

xlv. WV-SOS-23-0427-A: “West Virginia Secretary of State Communications and Assessments About the State’s Withdrawal from ERIC,” 262–266.

xlvi. GA-COLUMBIA-23-1162-A: “Columbia County, Ga., Board of Elections Communications with EagleAI,” 26, 47, 49; received by American Oversight December 4, 2023.

xlvii. WY-SOS-23-0787-A: “Wyoming Secretary of State Communications with Anti-Voter Activists and Related Meeting Records,” 1422–1423, received by American Oversight October 19, 2023. 

xlviii. WY-SOS-23-0787-A: “Wyoming Secretary of State Communications with Anti-Voter Activists and Related Meeting Records,” 136, 197–99. 

xlix. TX-SOS-23-0753-A: “Texas Secretary of State Communications with Anti-ERIC Groups,” 11–13.

l. TX-SOS-23-0753-A: “Texas Secretary of State Communications with Anti-ERIC Groups,” 11–13.

li. TX-SOS-23-0753-A: “Texas Secretary of State Communications with Anti-ERIC Groups,” 11.

lii. MO-SOS-23-0911-A: “Missouri Secretary of State Communications with Anti-ERIC Activist Groups,” 110, 116.

liii. NC-WAKE-23-0913-A: “Wake County, N.C., Board of Elections Records Regarding ERIC Replacements,” 1–2, received by American Oversight October 25, 2023. 

liv. MO-SOS-23-0911-A: “Missouri Secretary of State Communications with Anti-ERIC Activist Groups,” 58, 93.

lv. MO-SOS-23-0911-A: “Missouri Secretary of State Communications with Anti-ERIC Activist Groups,” 162.

lvi. WY-SOS-23-0787-A: “Wyoming Secretary of State Communications with Anti-Voter Activists and Related Meeting Records,” 163, 249; WV-SOS-23-0760-A: “West Virginia Secretary of State Communications with Anti-ERIC Activists,” 1–4, 40, 52–54; RI-DOS-23-0876-A: “Rhode Island Department of State Communications and Meeting Notes with Anti-voter Activists,” 102, 118; received by American Oversight November 2, 2023. 

lvii. AZ-SEN-23-1022-A: “Arizona State Senate Communications Related to ERIC Replacements,” 1, 6; received by American Oversight October 17, 2023.

lviii. TX-SOS-23-0425-A: “Texas Secretary of State Communications and Assessments About State’s Withdrawal from ERIC,” 41.

lix. TX-SOS-23-0425-A: “Texas Secretary of State Communications and Assessments About State’s Withdrawal from ERIC,” 1.

lx. TX-SOS-23-0921-A: “Texas Secretary of State Communications with Activist Groups Seeking to Replace ERIC,” 41, received by American Oversight October 18, 2023. 

NOTES

1. “Louisiana to Suspend Participation in Voter Registration Compact,” Louisiana Secretary of State, January 27, 2022, https://www.sos.la.gov/OurOffice/PublishedDocuments/FINAL%20VERSION-1.27.22%20ERIC%20PR.pdf.
2. “About,” Electronic Registration Information Center, https://ericstates.org/about.
3. Jen Fifield, “The truth about ERIC, the voter roll program targeted by extremists,” Votebeat, April 28, 2022, https://www.votebeat.org/23045551/eric-electronic-registration-information-center-voter-roll-matching-program.
4. Miles Parks, “How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud,” NPR, June 6, 2023, https://www.npr.org/2023/06/04/1171159008/eric-investigation-voter-data-election-integrity. 
5. “FAQ,” Electronic Registration Information Center, https://ericstates.org/faq/; see also Editorial Board, “Republicans enable voter fraud in the name of fighting it,” Washington Post, March 15, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/15/eric-voter-fraud-republicans-florida-desantis.
6. Stephanie Saul and Nick Corasaniti, “Voting Twice? Trump Creates a New Headache for Election Officials,” New York Times, September 3, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/03/us/politics/people-voting-twice-trump.html.
7. Roxana Hegeman, “Multistate voter database suspended in lawsuit settlement,” Associated Press, December 10, 2019, https://apnews.com/general-news-2c82eb782e578bbb81c121ec453fbee8.
8. Dartunorro Clark, “This System Catches Vote Fraud and the Wrath of Critics,” NBC News, August 12, 2017, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/system-catches-vote-fraud-wrath-critics-n790471.
9. Sharad Goel, Marc Meredith, Michael Morse, David Rothschild, and Houshmand Shirani-Mehr, “One Person, One Vote: Estimating the Prevalence of Double Voting in U.S. Presidential Elections,” October 24, 2017, https://www.dropbox.com/s/fokd83nn4x6wuw9/OnePersonOneVote.pdf.
10. Christopher Ingraham, “This anti-voter-fraud program gets it wrong over 99 percent of the time. The GOP wants to take it nationwide,” Washington Post, July 20, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/07/20/this-anti-voter-fraud-program-gets-it-wrong-over-99-of-the-time-the-gop-wants-to-take-it-nationwide.
11. Peggy Lowe, “Kansas Voter Tracking System Championed By Former SOS Kris Kobach Is ‘Dead’,” KCUR, December 10, 2019, https://www.kcur.org/politics-elections-and-government/2019-12-10/kansas-voter-tracking-system-championed-by-former-sos-kris-kobach-is-dead.
12. Roxana Hegeman, “Multistate voter database suspended in lawsuit settlement,” Associated Press, December 10, 2019, https://apnews.com/general-news-2c82eb782e578bbb81c121ec453fbee8.
13. Ingraham, “This anti-voter-fraud program gets it wrong over 99 percent of the time. The GOP wants to take it nationwide.”
14. Parks, “How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud.” 
15. Fifield, “The truth about ERIC, the voter roll program targeted by extremists.” 
16. “Statistics,” Electronic Registration Information Center, https://ericstates.org/statistics.
17. “Statistics,” Electronic Registration Information Center.
18. Amy Sherman, “Successful program finds voters who moved or died. Why are states leaving it before 2024 elections?,” PolitiFact, May 4, 2023, https://www.politifact.com/article/2023/may/04/successful-program-finds-voters-who-moved-or-died.
19. Dartunorro Clark, “Bipartisan Group That Shares Voter Data Shames Trump Panel,” NBC News, July 16, 2017, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/bipartisan-group-shares-voter-data-shames-trump-panel-n783206.
20. Parks, “How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud.” 
21. Jim Hoft, “Who’s ‘Cleaning’ Our Voter Rolls? Soros Funded ERIC Is Now Used In 31 States,” Gateway Pundit, January 20, 2022, https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/01/cleaning-voter-rolls-soros-founded-funded-eric-now-used-31-states. 
22. Eric Hananoki, “20-Plus Times Jim Hoft And The Gateway Pundit Were Absurdly Wrong,” Media Matters for America, January 25, 2017, https://www.mediamatters.org/gateway-pundit/20-plus-times-jim-hoft-and-gateway-pundit-were-absurdly-wrong.
23. Alexis Benveniste, “Twitter banned Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft,” CNN, February 8, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/07/media/twitter-ban-gateway-pundit-founder-jim-hoft/index.html.
24. Peter Eisler, “Two Georgia election workers sue far-right website over false fraud allegations,” Reuters, December 2, 2021, https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/two-georgia-election-workers-sue-far-right-website-over-false-fraud-allegations-2021-12-02.
25. Amy Sherman, “Arizona’s Mark Finchem falsely links George Soros to voter roll program,” PolitiFact, October 17, 2022, https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/oct/17/mark-finchem/arizonas-mark-finchem-falsely-links-george-soros-t/.
26. Parks, “How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud.” 
27. J. Christian Adams, “Leaked Documents Reveal Expansive Soros Funding to Manipulate Federal Elections,” PJ Media, November 7, 2016, https://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2016/11/07/leaked-documents-reveal-expansive-soros-funding-to-manipulate-federal-elections-n123917.
28. Parks, “How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud.” 
29. Parks, “How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud.”
30. Shane Hamlin, “An Open Letter From ERIC’s Executive Director,” Election Registration Information Center, March 2, 2023, https://ericstates.org/an-open-letter.
31. Parks, “How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud.”
32. Fifield, “The truth about ERIC, the voter roll program targeted by extremists.” 
33. Parks, “How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud.”
34. “Louisiana to Suspend Participation in Voter Registration Compact,” Louisiana Secretary of State, January 27, 2022, https://www.sos.la.gov/OurOffice/PublishedDocuments/FINAL%20VERSION-1.27.22%20ERIC%20PR.pdf.
35. Parks, “How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud.”
36. Jessica Huseman, “No clear explanation for Louisiana’s decision to pull out of voter-roll program,” Votebeat, February 21, 2022, https://www.votebeat.org/2022/2/21/22944460/eric-voter-rolls-louisiana-withdrawal-kyle-ardoin.
37. Parks, “How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud.”
38. Emma Brown, “Phil Waldron, backer of Jan. 6 PowerPoint, is invited to speak to Louisiana voting panel,” Washington Post, December 14, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/phil-waldron-powerpoint-louisiana-voting/2021/12/14/e2fa4aaa-5cec-11ec-bda6-25c1f558dd09_story.html.
39. Alan Feuer, “A Retired Colonel’s Unlikely Role in Pushing Baseless Election Claims,” New York Times, December 21, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/21/us/politics/phil-waldron-jan-6.html.
40. “Election Denier Phil Waldron’s Communications with Arizona Senate Leaders,” American Oversight, December 14, 2021, https://www.americanoversight.org/election-denier-phil-waldrons-communications-with-arizona-senate-leaders.
41. David Gilbert, “American Grifters: Meet the MAGA Army Profiting Off Trump’s Election Lies,” Vice News, June 21, 2022, https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjk4mb/election-conspiracy-mike-lindell-michael-flynn.
42. Sara Cline and Christina A. Cassidy, “Conspiracies complicate voting machine debate in Louisiana,” Associated Press, August 13, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/elections-louisiana-voting-presidential-777f91231ebadf1bb30a7f6c62818ff7.
43. Alice Clapman and Ben Goldstein, “Hand-Counting Votes: A Proven Bad Idea,” Brennan Center for Justice, November 23, 2022, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/hand-counting-votes-proven-bad-idea.
44. Simon Lewis and Joseph Tanfani, “Special Report: How a small group of U.S. lawyers pushed voter fraud fears into the mainstream,” Reuters, September 9, 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-voter-fraud-special-repo-idCAKBN2601GZ.
45. Jeremy Herb and Dianne Gallagher, “How a lawyer who aided Trump’s 2020 subversion efforts was named to a federal election advisory board,” CNN, November 18, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/18/politics/cleta-mitchell-election-assistance-commission-advisor/index.html.
46. Parks, “How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud.”
47. “Secretary Ardoin Releases Statement on Three More States Withdrawing From the Electronic Registration Information Center,” Louisiana Secretary of State, March 6, 2023, https://www.sos.la.gov/OurOffice/PublishedDocuments/03.06.23ERICStatement.pdf.
48. Parks, “How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud.”
49. Zach Montellaro, “Election deniers set sights on next target,” Politico, January 23, 2023, https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/23/election-deniers-2022-00078859.
50. Huseman, “No clear explanation for Louisiana’s decision to pull out of voter-roll program.”
51. “Center for Election Innovation and Research: Reporting Election Results,” C-SPAN, May 8, 2023, https://www.c-span.org/video/?527927-3/center-election-innovation-research-reporting-election-results.
52. “In the Documents: The Thomas More Society and Other Outside Groups’ Influence on Partisan Wisconsin Election Investigation,” American Oversight, September 2, 2022, https://www.americanoversight.org/in-the-documents-the-thomas-more-society-and-other-outside-groups-influence-on-partisan-wisconsin-election-investigation.
53. J.R. Carlson, “The Legitimacy and Effect of Private Funding in Federal and State Electoral Processes,” The Amistad Project, December 14, 2020, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/612ba1215af29e5e1ad93041/t/61e81e6d6f738301315222e4/1642602095420/2.-The-Legitimacy-and-Effect-of-Private-Funding-in-Federal-and-State-Electoral-Processes.pdf.
54. “Wisconsin Rep. Brandtjen’s Communications Regarding Election Investigations,” American Oversight, December 9, 2021, https://www.americanoversight.org/wisconsin-rep-brandtjens-communications-regarding-election-investigations.
55. “PILF Sues the D.C. Board of Elections for Failure to Provide Voter List Maintenance Records,” Public Interest Legal Foundation, December 6, 2021, https://publicinterestlegal.org/press/pilf-sues-the-d-c-board-of-elections-for-failure-to-provide-voter-list-maintenance-records/.
56. “Safeguarding Future Elections: Critical Reforms to Secure Voter Integrity and Rebuild Confidence in American Elections,” Honest Elections Project, February 2021, https://www.honestelections.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/HEP-Election-Reform-Report.pdf; “Methodology,” Heritage Foundation, https://www.heritage.org/electionscorecard/pages/methodology.html; “Voter Rolls,” American First Policy Institute, August 19, 2021, https://web.archive.org/web/20231024153013/https://assets.americafirstpolicy.com/assets/uploads/files/Voter_Rolls_28.pdf; Andy Jackson, “For cleaner voting rolls, North Carolina should join interstate data-sharing group,” The John Locke Foundation, April 28, 2021, https://www.johnlocke.org/for-cleaner-voting-rolls-north-carolina-should-join-interstate-data-sharing-group/.
57. Parks, “How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud.”
58. “How Cleta Mitchell and Allies Attacked a Bipartisan Anti-Voter Fraud Tool in North Carolina and Florida,” Documented, November 14, 2023, https://documented.net/investigations/how-cleta-mitchell-and-allies-tore-down-a-bipartisan-voter-fraud-tool-in-nc-and-fl.
59. “Cyber Ninjas Emails Reveal New Details on Role of Partisan Funders, Contract Disputes,” American Oversight, June 16, 2022, https://www.americanoversight.org/cyber-ninjas-emails-reveal-new-details-on-role-of-partisan-funders-contract-disputes.
60. Ryan Randazzo, Jen Fifield, and Andrew Oxford, “Who is looking at your ballot? These are the companies involved in the Arizona election recount,” Arizona Republic, June 3, 2021, https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/06/03/arizona-audit-these-companies-are-looking-at-maricopa-county-ballots/5256982001/.
61. Jesse Bunch, “Who is Heather Honey? The Pa. investigator with history of election denialism was called on by the Arizona GOP in failed Kari Lake trial,” Philadelphia Inquirer, December 30, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/kari-lake-trial-heather-honey-pennsylvania-voter-fraud-20221230.html.
62. Bunch, “Who is Heather Honey? The Pa. investigator with history of election denialism was called on by the Arizona GOP in failed Kari Lake trial.”
63. Chris Mueller, “Fact check: Misleading claim that Pennsylvania sent ballots to 255,000 unverified voters,” USA Today, November 7, 2022, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2022/11/07/fact-check-claim-unverified-voters-pennsylvania-misleads/8241229001/.
64. “ERIC Sharing Data with Zuckerburg-Funded [sic] NGO,” Verity Vote, June 17, 2022, https://verityvote.us/eric-sharing-data-with-zuckerburg-funded-ngo/; “Conservative Partnership Institute June 2022 SOS Meeting,” Documented, December 19, 2022, https://documented.net/media/conservative-partnership-institute-june-2022-sos-meeting; Parks, “How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud.”
65. Josh Kelety, “Posts misrepresent Mark Zuckerberg’s election spending,” Associated Press, May 3, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-mark-zuckerberg-election-donations-188810437774.
66. “Patrice Johnson: Turning the Election Integrity Lights on in Michigan,” Election Integrity Network, May 5, 2022, https://whoscounting.us/2022/05/patrice-johnson-turning-the-election-integrity-lights-on-in-michigan.
67. “Anti-ERIC Email from NCEIT to NC Lawmakers, 7/12/22,” Documented, October 30, 2023, https://documented.net/media/july-2023-email-on-hb-103-2.
68. “Anti-ERIC Email from NCEIT to NC Lawmakers, 7/12/22.” 
69. “House Bill 103 / SL 2022-74,” North Carolina General Assembly, https://www.ncleg.gov/BillLookup/2021/H103.
70. Jeff O’Donnell is a software engineer who has pushed the false election-fraud narrative alongside MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. Wesley Huff is an elections activist affiliated with Defend Florida, a far-right voting fraud conspiracy group. See: Tom McKay, “Crowdsourced ‘Adjudicators Are Picking Up Where the Cyber Ninjas Left Off,” Gizmodo, January 19, 2022, https://gizmodo.com/crowdsourced-adjudicators-are-picking-up-where-the-cybe-1848380891; Alexandra Berzon and Sharon LaFraniere, “How DeSantis Played Both Sides of the G.O.P. Rift Over the 2020 Election,” New York Times, September 18, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/18/us/politics/desantis-trump-2020-election.html; Zac Anderson, “Email shows far right voting fraud conspiracy group worked with top DeSantis aide,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, March 30, 2023, https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/politics/2023/03/30/defend-florida-far-right-group-worked-with-desantis-office-on-election-bill/70057323007.
71. “PRESS RELEASE: Florida Withdraws From Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) Amid Concerns About Data Privacy and Blatant Partisanship,” Florida Department of State, March 6, 2023, https://dos.fl.gov/communications/press-releases/2023/press-release-florida-withdraws-from-electronic-registration-information-center-eric-amid-concerns-about-data-privacy-and-blatant-partisanship.
72. Mercedes Yanora, “Three more states withdraw from voter data organization,” Ballotpedia, March 13, 2023, https://news.ballotpedia.org/2023/03/13/three-more-states-withdraw-from-voter-data-organization.
73. “Secretary of State Wes Allen officially withdraws from ERIC Organization,” Alabama Secretary of State, January 16, 2023, https://www.sos.alabama.gov/newsroom/secretary-state-wes-allen-officially-withdraws-eric-organization; “PRESS RELEASE: Florida Withdraws From Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) Amid Concerns About Data Privacy and Blatant Partisanship.”
74. Fifield, “The truth about ERIC, the voter roll program targeted by extremists.” 
75. Ari Berman, “The Man Behind Trump’s Voter-Fraud Obsession,” New York Times, June 13, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/magazine/the-man-behind-trumps-voter-fraud-obsession.html; Jarrett Renshaw, “As Trump attacks mail ballots, Republicans see their own prospects damaged,” Reuters, August 7, 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-mail-insight/as-trump-attacks-mail-ballots-republicans-see-their-own-prospects-damaged-idUSKCN2531IC; “Voting Laws Roundup: July 2021,” Brennan Center for Justice, July 22, 2021, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-july-2021.
76. “ERIC: The Force Behind Bloated Voter Rolls, Leaks Citizen Data to Leftwing Founder’s Nonprofit,” Election Integrity Network, September 14, 2022, https://whoscounting.us/podcast/eric-the-force-behind-bloated-voter-rolls-leaks-citizen-data-to-leftwing-founders-nonprofit/.
77. Parks, “How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud.”
78. “How Cleta Mitchell and Allies Attacked a Bipartisan Anti-Voter Fraud Tool in North Carolina and Florida.”
79. Kim Chandler, “Election skeptics seek Alabama secretary of state’s office,” Associated Press, June 17, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-covid-health-campaigns-government-and-politics-bed7f04b10d5ecd9186f37de656c2c13.
80. Lewis and Tanfani, “Special Report: How a small group of U.S. lawyers pushed voter fraud fears into the mainstream.” 
81. Lewis and Tanfani, “Special Report: How a small group of U.S. lawyers pushed voter fraud fears into the mainstream.”
82. Herb and Gallagher, “How a lawyer who aided Trump’s 2020 subversion efforts was named to a federal election advisory board.” 
83. “In the Documents: Cleta Mitchell’s Emails Criticizing Increased Use of Absentee Voting,” American Oversight, March 30, 2023, https://www.americanoversight.org/in-the-documents-cleta-mitchells-emails-criticizing-increased-use-of-absentee-voting.
84. Herb and Gallagher, “How a lawyer who aided Trump’s 2020 subversion efforts was named to a federal election advisory board.”
85. Jaclyn Diaz, “Attorney On Call With Trump And Georgia Officials Resigns From Law Firm,” NPR, January 6, 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/01/06/953823383/attorney-on-call-with-trump-and-georgia-officials-resigns-from-law-firm.
86. Brendan Fischer and Ed Pilkington, “Revealed: Trump secretly donated $1m to discredited Arizona election ‘audit’,” The Guardian, January 27, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/27/trump-secretly-donated-1m-arizona-election-audit.
87. “Meet “Eagle AI,” the Cleta Mitchell-Backed MAGA Mass Voter Challenge Program,” Documented, August 17, 2023, https://documented.net/investigations/meet-eagle-ai-the-cleta-mitchell-backed-project-for-maga-activists-to-file-mass-voter-challenges.
88. “Behind The Dark Money Attack on Voting Rights,” Documented, May 8, 2023, https://documented.net/investigations/the-dark-money-attack-on-voting-rights.
89. Maggie Severns and Terry Gross, “How the CPI became the most powerful messaging force in the MAGA universe,” NPR, July 21, 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/07/21/1112699295/how-the-cpi-became-the-most-powerful-messaging-force-in-the-maga-universe.
90. Kim Chandler, “Allen: Alabama to leave voter registration partnership,” Associated Press, November 16, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/alabama-voter-registration-district-of-columbia-government-and-politics-d38ecd9b64f7204a22a3a0c30d5752f7.
91. “Secretary of State Wes Allen officially withdraws from ERIC Organization.”
92. Neil Vigdor, “G.O.P. States Abandon Bipartisan Voting Integrity Group, Yielding to Conspiracy Theories,” New York Times, March 7, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/07/us/politics/gop-voter-registration-fraud-eric.html.
93. “PRESS RELEASE: Florida Withdraws From Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) Amid Concerns About Data Privacy and Blatant Partisanship.”
94. “WV Resigns from Electronic Registration Information Center,” West Virginia Secretary of State, March 6, 2023, https://sos.wv.gov/news/Pages/03-06-23-A.aspx.
95. “Ashcroft Leads Missouri, Florida and West Virginia Out of ERIC,” Missouri Secretary of State, March 6, 2023, https://www.sos.mo.gov/default.aspx?PageId=10296.
96. Frank LaRose, Email to Shane Hamlin and ERIC Board of Directors, March 17, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/documents/b9b5ffdf-32ac-4261-95e2-b26487b5c065.pdf?itid=lk_inline_manual_4.
97. Paul Pate (@IowaSOS), “A statement in regard to Iowa’s ERIC membership:,” X (formerly Twitter), March 17, 2023, 3:17 p.m, https://twitter.com/IowaSOS/status/1636839092074717187.
98. Parks, “How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud.”
99. Karen Kasler, “LaRose says Ohio may drop out of voter registration program he praised last month,” Statehouse News Bureau, March 7, 2023, https://www.statenews.org/government-politics/2023-03-07/larose-says-ohio-may-drop-out-of-voter-registration-program-he-praised-last-month.
100. Ben Paviour and Miles Parks, “Virginia becomes the latest GOP-governed state to quit a voter data partnership,” NPR, May 11, 2023, https://www.npr.org/2023/05/11/1175662382/virginia-eric-withdrawal.
101. Susan J. Beals, Letter to Shane Hamlin, May 11, 2023, https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23810805-file_0097-2.
102. Natalia Contreras, “Texas begins withdrawal from multistate partnership to clean voter rolls,” Votebeat and Texas Tribune, July 20, 2023, https://www.texastribune.org/2023/07/20/texas-republican-voter-roll-eric.
103. Will Carless, “John Johnson isn’t dead: How claims of voter fraud in Florida fell apart,” Reveal News, October 22, 2020, https://revealnews.org/article/john-johnson-isnt-dead-how-claims-of-voter-fraud-in-florida-fell-apart.
104. Natalia Contreras, “Conspiracy theory whirlwind threatens to blow Texas out of national program that keeps voter rolls updated,” Votebeat, March 9, 2023, https://texas.votebeat.org/2023/3/9/23630956/texas-withdraw-eric-voter-rolls-electronic-registration-information-center.
105. Caroline Sullivan, “Arizona Governor Vetoes Bill That Would Force State To Leave ERIC,” Democracy Docket, May 30, 2023, https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/arizona-governor-vetoes-bill-that-would-force-state-to-leave-eric.
106. Caroline Sullivan, “Oklahoma Legislature Sends Anti-ERIC Bill to Governor,” Democracy Docket, May 23, 2023, https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/oklahoma-legislature-sends-anti-eric-bill-to-governor.
107. Mac Brower, “North Carolina Budget Includes Ban on Joining Voter Data Organization ERIC,” Democracy Docket, May 23, 2023, https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/north-carolina-budget-includes-ban-on-joining-voter-data-organization-eric. 
108. “GOP Lawmakers Want Out of Anti-Voter Fraud Services,” Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, September 25, 2023, https://www.wisdc.org/news/press-releases/139-press-release-2023/7408-gop-lawmakers-want-out-of-anti-voter-fraud-services.
109. Marc Levy and Jonathan J. Cooper, “Election-denying lawmakers hold key election oversight roles,” Associated Press, January 28, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/politics-united-states-government-pennsylvania-2022-midterm-elections-arizona-6ce58816a74a76c7ff97c64f8a4c85e9.
110. Robby Brod, “ERIC helps identify voter fraud in Pa. and other states. So, why is one lawmaker pushing for the state to leave it?” WITF, June 15, 2023, https://www.witf.org/2023/06/15/eric-helps-identify-voter-fraud-in-pa-and-other-states-so-why-is-one-lawmaker-pushing-for-the-state-to-leave-it.
111. Jonathan Shorman, “After Ashcroft pulls Missouri out of voting info system, no plan for alternative program,” Kansas City Star, March 13, 2023, https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article272985295.html.
112. Nick Evans, “Ohio Secretary of State signs voter data sharing agreements with three states,” Ohio Capital Journal, September 18, 2023, https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2023/09/18/ohio-secretary-of-state-signs-voter-data-sharing-agreements-with-three-states/.
113. Ben Paviour, “Virginia announces new, post-ERIC voter data agreements,” VPM News, September 20, 2023, https://www.vpm.org/news/2023-09-20/eric-virginia-voter-registration-data-safety-security-new.
114. “Alabama unveils homegrown AVID system to maintain state voter rolls,” WSFA 12, September 18, 2023, https://www.wsfa.com/2023/09/18/alabama-unveils-homegrown-avid-system-maintain-state-voter-rolls.
115. Zachary Roth, “GOP-led states plan new voter data systems to replace one they rejected. Good luck with that.” Indiana Capital Chronicle, May 30, 2023, https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/2023/05/30/gop-led-states-plan-new-voter-data-systems-to-replace-one-they-rejected-good-luck-with-that.
116. Matt Shuham, “9 Republican States Left A Bipartisan Election Integrity Group. Now, They’re Struggling to Replace It.” HuffPost, September 22, 2023, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/eric-voter-registration-list-election-integrity-missouri-west-virginia-alabama_n_6509afe1e4b0b5c42641a0a4.
117. Miles Parks, “Republican states swore off a voting tool. Now they’re scrambling to recreate it,” NPR, October 20, 2023, https://www.npr.org/2023/10/20/1207142433/eric-investigation-follow-up-voter-data-election-integrity.
118. “Leaked Audio: Cleta Mitchell’s Election Integrity Network Bringing Conspiracy Theorists Into Election System,” Documented, August 2, 2022, https://documented.net/investigations/recordings-reveal-whats-really-going-on-cleta-mitchell-election-integrity-network.
119. Rebekah Wilce, “Exposed: The State Policy Network,” Center for Media and Democracy, November 2013, https://www.prwatch.org/files/spn_national_report_final.pdf.
120. “Documented Has Obtained a New Council for National Policy Membership List,” Documented, March 18, 2022, https://documented.net/investigations/documented-has-obtained-a-recent-council-for-national-policy-membership-list; “Council for National Policy,” SourceWatch, September 2020, https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Council_for_National_Policy#cite_note-cnp920-8.
121. Robert O’Harrow Jr., “God, Trump and the Closed-Door World of a Major Conservative Group,” Washington Post, October 25, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2021/10/25/god-trump-closed-door-world-council-national-policy. 
122. “Lynn Taylor: President & Co-Founder, Virginia Institute for Public Policy,” Virginia Institute for Public Policy, https://virginiainstitute.org/people/lynn-taylor-board.
123. Hayden Ludwig, “The Left’s Taxpayer-Funded Voter Registration Machine [REPOST],” Capital Research Center, December 29, 2022, https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-lefts-taxpayer-funded-voter-registration-machine-repost.
124. “About,” Virginia Fair Elections, https://vafairelections.org/about/#coalition.
125. Jane C. Timm, “Inside the right’s effort to build a voter fraud hunting tool,” NBC News, August 17, 2023, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/conservatives-voter-fraud-hunting-tool-eagleai-cleta-mitchell-rcna97327.
126. “Meet ‘Eagle AI,’ the Cleta Mitchell-Backed MAGA Mass Voter Challenge Program,” Documented, August 17, 2023, https://documented.net/investigations/meet-eagle-ai-the-cleta-mitchell-backed-project-for-maga-activists-to-file-mass-voter-challenges.
127. “Meet ‘Eagle AI,’ the Cleta Mitchell-Backed MAGA Mass Voter Challenge Program.”
128. “Eagle AI Network ‘Capabilities Study,’” Documented, August 17, 2023, https://documented.net/media/eagle-ai-network-capabilities-study. 
129. Timm, “Inside the right’s effort to build a voter fraud hunting tool.” 
130. “Meet ‘Eagle AI,’ the Cleta Mitchell-Backed MAGA Mass Voter Challenge Program.” 
131. Alexandra Berzon and Nick Corasaniti, “Georgia County Signs Up to Use Voter Database Backed by Election Deniers,” New York Times, December 1, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/01/us/politics/georgia-county-election-deniers-trump.html.
132. Andrew B. Garber, Letter to Columbia County, Georgia Officials Regarding EagleAI, Brennan Center for Justice, October 16, 2023, https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/2023-10/Letter%20to%20Columbia%20County%20EagleAI%2010.16.23.pdf. 
133. Devon Hesano, “The Right’s Dangerous and Unreliable Alternative to ERIC,” Democracy Docket, September 27, 2023, https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/the-rights-dangerous-and-unreliable-alternative-to-eric.
134. Maria Polletta, “Trump attorney tells Maricopa County judge that vote challenge is not about fraud or election theft,” Arizona Republic, November 12, 2020, https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/11/12/maricopa-county-judge-hear-trump-team-case-maricopa-county-votes/6260414002/.
135. Morgan Lee and Anthony Izaguirre, “Voter rolls are becoming the new battleground over secure elections as amateur sleuths hunt fraud,” Associated Press, October 6, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/elections-voter-rolls-access-trump-fraud-claims-7bf841f66cf6e0731ca6322e08de737c.
136. Lee and Izaguirre, “Voter rolls are becoming the new battleground over secure elections as amateur sleuths hunt fraud.” 
137. Leo Wolfson, “Chuck Gray Scores Victory With Defeat Of Bill That Would Have Prevented Ballot Inspections,” Cowboy State Daily, January 11, 2023, https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/01/11/chuck-gray-lobbies-committee-for-hand-count-audits-of-ballots-in-wyoming.
138. Charlotte Rene Woods, “Group with ties to election denial pushes voter registration in Richmond,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, August 30, 2023, https://richmond.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/group-with-ties-to-election-denial-pushes-voter-registration-in-richmond/article_00b3532e-4694-11ee-b6be-df40b5ceb315.html. 
139. Contreras, “Texas begins withdrawal from multistate partnership to clean voter rolls.”
140. “In the Documents: Wisconsin State Representative’s Contacts with Election-Denying Activists and Lawyers.” 
141. Parks, “Republican states swore off a voting tool. Now they’re scrambling to recreate it.”
142. “Debunking the Voter Fraud Myth,” Brennan Center for Justice, January 31, 2017, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/debunking-voter-fraud-myth.
143. Justin Levitt, “A comprehensive investigation of voter impersonation finds 31 credible incidents out of one billion ballots cast,” Washington Post, August 6, 2014, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/06/a-comprehensive-investigation-of-voter-impersonation-finds-31-credible-incidents-out-of-one-billion-ballots-cast.
144. Christina A. Cassidy, “Far too little vote fraud to tip election to Trump, AP finds,” Associated Press, December 14, 2021, https://apnews.com/article/voter-fraud-election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-7fcb6f134e528fee8237c7601db3328f.
145. “From Voter-Fraud Myths to Bogus Election Audits: The Evolution of the ‘Big Lie,’” American Oversight, September 13, 2021, https://www.americanoversight.org/from-voter-fraud-myths-to-bogus-election-audits-the-evolution-of-the-big-lie.
146. “States Move in Opposite Directions on Voter Registration & List Maintenance,” Voting Rights Lab, May 30, 2023, https://votingrightslab.org/2023/05/30/states-move-in-opposite-directions-on-voter-registration-list-maintenance.

Special thanks to lead report authors Chloe Dennison, Riley Messer, Kyla Sommers, Kelsey Speers, and Amanda Teuscher. Additional thanks to Jaci Jones, Tripp Laino, Jack Patterson, Lily Reavis, Ben Sparks, and Miho Watabe for their contributions.