Republican state legislators who say they want more accurate voter registration lists voted for a bill Tuesday that would withdraw Georgia from a voter list accuracy organization.
The bill would end Georgia’s participation in ERIC, a 24-state partnership that since 2021 has identified over 1.9 million registrations of voters who likely moved or died.
Supporters of the measure, which passed a House elections subcommittee on a party-line vote, say Georgia can do a better job of canceling outdated voter registrations on its own than through the Electronic Registration Information Center.
If Georgia leaves ERIC, it would join nine other Republican-run states that have quit the organization in recent years, including Alabama, Florida and Texas.
State Elections Director Blake Evans defended ERIC, telling representatives it helps cancel outdated registrations, prevents illegal voting and keeps the state’s list of 8.3 million registered voters up-to-date.
“ERIC is, in my opinion, the most secure and efficient mass voter list maintenance tool that is available,” said Evans, who works for Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and served as ERIC’s chairman last year.
The sponsor of House Bill 215, state Rep. Martin Momtahan of Dallas, said ERIC has become inadequate because when other states withdrew, they stopped sharing their voters’ information with Georgia. Among Georgia’s neighbors, only South Carolina remains an ERIC member.
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com
“We know without a shadow of a doubt that states just aren’t participating,” said Momtahan. “It’s the high-impact states that really matter, right? And those are the ones that surround us. If we’re going to be part of some type of joint voter registration list maintenance organization, we need to make sure that it’s effective.”
Momtahan said he’d like to find another way for Georgia to do the same work as ERIC without paying $98,000 in annual dues or sharing private voter information with an outside organization.
A company supported by Republican activists, EagleAI, has billed itself as an alternative to ERIC, but EagleAI doesn’t have access to personal voter details to identify outdated registrations, such as driver’s license numbers, full birthdates and Social Security numbers.
Voting rights groups told lawmakers Tuesday that ERIC helps states ensure that when voters move, they’re registered at their current addresses and not at their old residences.
“ERIC is really crucial,” said Marisa Pyle of the group All Voting Is Local. “Without its updates for voters who passed away, moved or registered to vote elsewhere, it would make it much harder for Georgia and the secretary of state’s office to get that information.”
Opponents of ERIC criticize its efforts to register voters as well as cancel them. But Evans said Georgia received an exemption last year from ERIC’s service that sends letters to eligible but unregistered residents to notify them they can sign up to vote.
Besides ERIC, Georgia also has separate state-to-state agreements with Alabama and Virginia to share voter information.
State Rep. Saira Draper, a Democrat from Atlanta, said “it makes zero sense” for conservatives who say they want secure elections to support withdrawing from ERIC.
“If the goal is to clean the voter lists in the most accurate way possible and to preserve personally identifying information, ERIC is a much better option,” Draper said.
The bill could be considered soon by the House Governmental Affairs Committee, the next step before a vote in the full House of Representatives.
By the numbers
Notifications mailed to voters since Georgia joined ERIC in 2021, a step before canceling their registrations.
603,118: Voters who appear to have moved from one ERIC state to another based on voter registration and driver’s license information.
246,123: Voters who appear to have moved within Georgia based on voter registration and driver’s license information.
1,065,817: Voters who appear to have moved based on national change of address information from the U.S. Postal Service.
Source: Georgia secretary of state
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