ERIC – Partisanship Can Destroy the Simplest Ideas

Explore and Discuss How Partisanship Tore Apart What NPR refers to as One of the Best Tools to Fight Voter Fraud

ERIC (the Electronic Information Registration Center) was formed as a nonpartisan organization by state election officials with the simple goal of sharing voter information so that each member state could purge people who had died, moved, or registered in another state.

ERIC grew rapidly. In less than a decade, 34 states: 13 red, 10 purple, and 11 blue, had joined — a truly bipartisan mix.

Then, the attacks started from the right. In rapid succession, 8 red and one purple state quit ERIC, jeopardizing its future. How could the idea of keeping accurate track of voter rolls have suddenly become a punching bag in the partisan wars?

Join us for a discussion of how this happened and what can be done to create a system in which states know the identity of their voters and in which voters can’t abuse the system.