Ohio on Friday became the latest state to leave an obscure multi-state consortium that aims to help maintain accurate voter rolls but has become a growing target for conservative groups.
Ohio’s departure from the nonprofit group, Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, marks the fourth state to resign from the organization this month. In all, six states run by Republicans have withdrawn from the organization in the last year.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, cited the defeat at a Friday board meeting of several proposals that he said would have improved data security and reduced partisan influence in the organization.
In a letter announcing the resignation, LaRose said ERIC “has chosen repeatedly to ignore demands to embrace reforms that would bolster confidence in its performance, encourage growth in its membership and ensure not only its present stability but also its durability.”
Three other states Florida, Missouri and West Virginia – left the organization en masse on a single day earlier in March.
Other Republican-led states could follow. Bills pending in Texas would remove the state from ERIC, and election officials there say they have begun to work to develop their own system.
The attacks on the group – founded in 2012 by seven states as a way to update voter registration rolls, encourage voter registration and thwart potential voter fraud – underscore how deeply distrust of the 2020 results – and the mechanics of administering elections – has penetrated conservative circles.
The controversy swirling around the group also prompted David Becker – a founder of ERIC – to announce this week that he was resigning his non-voting position on the group’s board after conservatives claimed his presence had injected partisanship in the group.
On Friday, Becker told…
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