How to secure Virginia elections
Election observers fear that misinformation — inaccu-rate information that’s often designed to deceive the public — will play an outsized role in determining the 2024 presidential election. That’s a valid concern after some Republicans dis puted the 2020 results (and as their 2024 presidential nominee continues to insist that his loss came as a result of voter fraud). Given that as a backdrop, accurate state-level election databases are more important than ever.
Unfortunately, Virginia’s election system has already fallen victim to a misinformation campaign thanks to a distorted four-part series published by the Gateway Pundit — a rightwing blog known for peddling conspiracy theories. The site targeted one of the nation’s best tools to ensure precise voter information, the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). As a result, Virginia joined an exodus of GOP-controlled states from the system.
ERIC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded in 2012 by four Republican and three Democratic secretaries of state, including Virginia’s. It is designed to strengthen voter-roll precision by helping states share and compare data. The system uses voter registration and Department of Motor Vehicle information, which is securely provided by member states. It is designed to strengthen voter data accuracy.
Allegations from Gateway Pundit claim that “left wing activists created ERIC to clean voter rolls their way, using their rules,” using a database that is “comprehensive and would be one of the most coveted by bad actors looking to influence an election.” These investigative reports are filled with innuendo, but it was enough to stir up the Republican base and frighten GOP officials.
ERIC helps identify when voters move, find ineligible voters, investigate illegal voting and provide eligible citizens with voter registration information. This up-to-date data is used to generate reports for member states to ensure voter rolls are correct. It’s a useful tool and has operated in a fair-minded and noncontroversial manner under the oversight of its member states, which included more Republican than Democratic-led states until the recent red-state exodus.
When the Virginia Department of Elections announced the commonwealth was severing ties with ERIC, the commissioner of elections cited “increasing concerns regarding stewardship, maintenance, privacy and confidentiality of voter information,” and “controversy surrounding the historical sharing of data with outside organizations leveraged for political purposes.”
Both of these debunked assertions can be traced to the Gateway Pundit blog posts. In fact, there has never been evidence of a data breach at ERIC, or that data has been shared without a member state’s consent. The organization is protected by a secure encryption process for all the personal voter data that is indecipherable to would-be hackers. Additionally, other attempts to guarantee correct voter data, like the Interstate Crosscheck system, ran into multiple issues with accuracy and security breaches.
Moreover, the accusation regarding data sharing with outside organizations refers to a research project in 2020 in which Virginia election officials voluntarily provided its ERIC data to the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR).
This arrangement was misrepresented and spread by Gateway Pundit, ultimately leading to Virginia and other Republican states to end their membership.
Upon withdrawing from ERIC, Virginia recognized that the need for interstate data sharing remained and it attempted to create a new arrangement for voting-list authenticity with six other jurisdictions. This arrangement leaves Virginia voter data reliability in the lurch and could lead to similar issues that led to the failure of the Interstate Crosscheck program. Other think tanks, including the conservative Heritage Foundation, have raised concerns about the cost and accuracy associated with creating a new system to replace ERIC.
The authenticity of voter rolls is critical to ensuring election integrity, and ERIC has a demonstrated track record of helping states clean their records. In Alabama, the system helped identify approximately 265,000 voters who had moved, died or had duplicate records. ERIC also assisted in finding those who voted in both Florida and another member state. One of these was a man who voted in both Florida and Virginia in the same election.
Virginia’s withdrawal from ERIC is going to hinder the commonwealth’s ability to identify situations of double voting and keep our voter data up-to-date. All of this because a blog published inaccurate information about ERIC. Gov. Glenn Youngkin can take a stand against misinformation related to ERIC by directing the Virginia Department of Elections to rejoin the nonpartisan, interstate compact.