Accurate Voter Registration Lists Key to Election Integrity

The recent criticism of the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), which has now led some five states to withdraw from the partnership, is puzzling at first glance. After all, why would any ethical elections supervisor, governor, or secretary of state refuse to utilize the best available tool to keep voter lists accurate and up-to-date? Honest elections begin with clean voter rolls.

ERIC is an organization of 28 states that share data to keep their respective voter lists accurate and encourage people to register to vote. It’s run and funded by the member states. It was started in 2012, and Georgia joined in 2019. Since that time, it has helped election officials in my office identify hundreds of thousands of inaccurate voter records on Georgia’s rolls. Among the 23 states participating in ERIC in 2020, the data identified more than 1.5 million voters who had moved out of the state in which they were registered, 1.3 million who had moved within the state in which they were registered, 135,000 voters with duplicate registrations, and nearly 73,000 deceased people who were still on the voter rolls. That’s more than 3 million inaccurate voter records in just 23 states — records that could have potentially affected election outcomes.

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Brad Raffensperger

Brad Raffensperger is the secretary of state for Georgia.

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The recent criticism of the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), which has now led some five states to withdraw from the partnership, is puzzling at first glance. After all, why would any ethical elections supervisor, governor, or secretary of state refuse to utilize the best available tool to keep voter lists accurate and up-to-date? Honest elections begin with clean voter rolls.

ERIC is an organization of 28 states that share data to keep their respective voter lists accurate and encourage people to register to vote. It’s run and funded by the member states. It was started in 2012, and Georgia joined in 2019. Since that time, it has helped election officials in my office identify hundreds of thousands of inaccurate voter records on Georgia’s rolls. Among the 23 states participating in ERIC in 2020, the data identified more than 1.5 million voters who had moved out of the state in which they were registered, 1.3 million who had moved within the state in which they were registered, 135,000 voters with duplicate registrations, and nearly 73,000 deceased people who were still on the voter rolls. That’s more than 3 million inaccurate voter records in just 23 states — records that could have potentially affected election outcomes.