Georgia Exiting ERIC Would Be a Major Victory for Election Transparency

Georgia may soon join the 10 states that have withdrawn from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a “bipartisan” “charity” with ties to leftist activists that farms sensitive data on eligible Georgian voters. ERIC bills itself as a public charity to help states maintain accurate voter rolls, yet the organization and its founder have a history of anti-conservative bias—while doing little to assist voter roll accuracy.

State Rep. Martin Momtahan (R-Dallas) sponsored House bill 215, which would cancel Georgia’s membership in ERIC. The bill now advances to the full House Governmental Affairs Committee after clearing the House Elections Subcommittee on a party-line vote.

Momtahan said Georgia should follow other states’ lead by seeking out “more state-based solutions” to maintain its voter rolls. He cited concerns with voter data security as his motivation for sponsoring the bill, saying, “Obviously, sending that information to a third party is not always foolproof or safe from a cybersecurity standpoint.”

As Restoration News previously reported,

ERIC membership requires that states transmit all inactive and active voter files in their registration databases and “all licensing or identification records contained in” their DMVs “at least every sixty (60) days.” These files must include a given individual’s name, address, date-of-birth, driver’s license or state ID number, Social Security Number (last four digits), phone number, and email address—private information no data vendor in America has access to.

Although Georgia only spends $97,000 annually on its ERIC membership, the organization requires additional monetary and political costs. For instance, ERIC’s membership agreement forces states to conduct costly voter registration drives but does not force them to clean their voter rolls.

Georgia received an exemption last year from the registration requirement. However, according to ERIC’s bylaws, member states must adopt “legislation or policies that have the potential to accomplish” this objective “by alternative means.”

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger (R) has remained in lockstep with the Left on ERIC’s mission to mass register voters.

What’s Really Wrong with ERIC?

When Restoration News published its investigative report on ERIC in 2023, the organization had access to sensitive information on 208 million Americans—nearly two-thirds of the total population. Since then, there has been a massive red state exodus. Twenty-four states currently participate in ERIC, down from its peak of 34. The Republican-majority Utah House of Representatives also recently passed a bill to withdraw that state.

ERIC’s left-wing founder David Becker also heads the left-wing Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR). When Mark Zuckerberg spent hundreds of millions of dollars to help fund the 2020 elections—the bulk of which helped Democrats—CEIR spent $70 million of it.

Becker praised Georgia when it joined in 2019, saying, “Georgia is joining with the majority of states—states as red as Alabama, Louisiana, and South Carolina . . .  to join ERIC, making it easier for voters to get registered and keep their voter information up-to-date.”

Alabama and Louisiana have since withdrawn their membership.

ERIC’s voter registration requirement fits neatly in the Left’s goal of creating a new electorate, because the Left understands it cannot win elections with America’s current electorate since its policies are too radical for the average informed voter. Leftist nonprofits like CEIR aim to register typically left-leaning Americans—such as the young, unmarried, LGBT, non-white, and white college-educated—whom the Left believes will become the “New American Majority.”

In a September 2020 email, CEIR researcher Jenny Lovell described to Georgia elections officials how CEIR generates a list of eligible-but-unregistered individuals from ERIC data that the state must target with registration mailers.

In this way, ERIC serves as a cost-cutter for leftist donors. All contributions to it are tax-exempt, the states handle the voter registration drives on the taxpayer’s dime, and the data states provide to CEIR may come in handy in future leftist campaigns.

In his statement praising Georgia’s joining ERIC, Becker added, “Before the 2020 election, Georgia voters will see what voters in other ERIC states have seen—more eligible voters registered and fewer problems at the polls.”

Georgia certainly saw the former, but problems at the polls increased dramatically in the 2020 election.

Even as many conservative states withdrew their membership from ERIC, Raffensberger has doubled down on his support for it. Thankfully, he does not get to vote on it.

Despite the closeness of recent presidential elections, Georgia is still a solidly red state. Republicans hold a 100–80 seat majority in the state house, a 33–23 majority in the state senate, and the governor’s mansion. Georgia Republicans should pass House Bill 215 and withdraw their state from ERIC to stop kowtowing to demands from a leftist organization that requires them to do the Left’s voter registration work on the taxpayer’s dime.

(READ MORE: Democrats Aim to Bring Ranked-Choice Voting Confusion to Virginia Elections)