“Nonpartisan” ERIC Shuts Out Conservative Press from Secretive Press Conference
The Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) is showing its true colors, and they’re all a shade of blue.
A spokeswoman for the interstate data compact barred Restoration News and other conservative media from attending a secretive press conference held shortly after ERIC’s board meeting on March 17. When asked for invitation details, Restoration News was told: “This call is for media only.” Further requests were met with silence.
Other reporters for right-leaning outlets told this writer that they, too, had been ignored after multiple attempts to join the event.
ERIC’s spokeswoman for the press conference is Liz Voyles, a former John Kerry presidential campaign staffer who runs the D.C. consultancy Brass Ring Communications. Revealingly, the firm’s client list includes ERIC and the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR), the far-left election “reform” group run by ERIC founder David Becker and the recipient of invaluable ERIC voter data.
Brass Ring’s other consultants include Jennifer Stapleton, a gun control advocate who previously worked for the left-wing funder that spawned ERIC, Pew Charitable Trusts; and Walker Irving, a former Hillary Clinton senatorial staffer.
Voyles might have been more honest; the so-called ERIC press conference is for left-wing media only, it seems, part of a desperate bid to defend the failing organization as state-after-state announces its withdrawal from ERIC.
As of Friday, that includes Ohio, the sixth state to depart ERIC. As Secretary of State Frank LaRose wrote: “ERIC has chosen repeatedly to ignore demands to embrace reforms that bolster confidence in its performance [and] encourage growth in its membership,” so it was time to leave.
(For more on Ohio’s departure from ERIC, click here.)
A Sinking Ship
One might be impressed by the recent media blitz to preserve ERIC—which has brought in the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, and many more irrelevant “progressive” outlets—save that it proves where the organization’s loyalties truly lie: with the Left.
Skeptics ought to wonder: If ERIC is as politically neutral as devotees claim, why call in the Washington Post editorial board to its defense?
To date, 5 states have withdrawn from the compact, each citing frustrations about ERIC’s refusal to drop forced voter registration requirements, stop sending voter information to the partisan Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR), and failure to compel states to tackle double-voting.
Instead of answering tough questions raised by lawmakers and watchdog organizations, ERIC has reverted to the Left’s favorite tactic: shutting down debate. Legitimate concerns are castigated as “far-right conspiracy theories” and “lies . . . from the fever swamps.” Anyone concerned about a private organization’s access to 200 million Americans’ private information is simply branded an “election denier” who “want[s] our democracy to fail.” End of discussion.
But that tactic won’t work any longer.
The harder that ERIC squeezes the more states will slip away, and this has left “progressives” baffled and distraught. Texas, one of the compact’s largest members, is exploring a replacement for ERIC free from partisan taint. Alaska’s elections chief is open to leaving. More will surely follow.
For more, catch our report “ERIC: The Best Data Money Can’t Buy”
