In a Worsening Trend, Texas Becomes Ninth State To Pull Out of ERIC
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Thursday, July 20, the state of Texas resigned from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), according to a letter obtained by VoteBeat.
The resignation will go into effect in 90 days and marks the ninth and largest departure from the voter roll maintenance program, all of which have taken place since 2022. The Texas Legislature had previously passed a bill authorizing the withdrawal from ERIC, which Gov. Greg Abbott (R) subsequently signed.
Founded in 2012, ERIC is a nonprofit organization that helps states maintain accurate voter rolls by providing list maintenance reports to states of individuals who may have moved or passed away, as well as of voters who have duplicate registrations. The organization was widely uncontroversial and heralded as an effective tool by both parties until just last year when it became subject to a flurry of right-wing conspiracy theories.
Since then, Republican-led states have been succumbing to pressure and withdrawing from the organization. ERIC relies on strength in numbers — the more states in ERIC the more effective it can be. With states continuing to flee, it will become harder for the group to gather and disseminate accurate information about voting rolls to states nationwide.