Keystone Today

A nonprofit social welfare foundation with a mission to protect transparent, accurate and fair elections in America is shedding light on a "flawed" voter registration maintenance system used in more than two dozen states including Pennsylvania.

The Electronic Registration Information Center, better known as ERIC, is a 501(c)3 organization that provides a simple means for states to compare data and allows its 31 member states to pinpoint possible duplicate registers or ineligible voters. According to the Voter Reference Foundation (VRF), however, the system has its faults. 

"Unfortunately, what could be a fantastic program is flawed by the complete lack of transparency within ERIC," Gina Swoboda, VRF Executive Director, wrote in a recent blog post. 

Swoboda added in the blog that she believes the lack of transparency has prevented the VRF from carrying out the public oversight of voter list maintenance that the National Voter Registration Act calls for. 

Louisiana stopped using ERIC at the end of January following allegations of questionable funding sources and because partisan actors may have access to its data for political purposes. At the time, Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin issued a press release that said, "I have determined that It may no longer be in Louisiana's best interests to participate in this organization."

According to data from October 2021, Pennsylvania was one of ERIC's member states. 

According to Swoboda's blog post, member states submit voter registration records along with drivers' license/identification records and other personal information including email addresses when available. 

Swoboda also pointed out that ERIC holds a "tremendous amount of data" about registered voters and those who are able to vote but remain unregistered. She wants to know who has access to this information.

Finally, she noted another worrisome issue centered around the lawsuit involving The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), an organization that wants voter list maintenance reports, released in accordance with the Voter Registration Act's Public Disclosure provision. According to Swoboda's blog post, ERIC is bound to withhold the information under a contract with the member states. Still, the VRF believes ERIC should get rid of the provisions that allow government agencies to avoid fulfilling public record, NVRA and FOIA requests.