World

Virginia becomes eighth US state to exit voter data-sharing pact

2023.08.10 06:26


© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A voter passes by campaign signs outside the Arlington County School Board building, on Election Day in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., November 8, 2022. REUTERS/Tom Brenner/File Photo

By Josephine Walker

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Virginia on Thursday became the eighth Republican-led U.S. state to leave a non-partisan voting-integrity partnership that has been undermined by unsubstantiated far-right charges that it favored Democrats.

Member states of the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, partnership share voter registration and identification data to avoid having people registered to vote in multiple states.

While voter fraud is vanishingly rare in U.S. elections, the nation’s state-by-state elections system raises the risk that people who move from one state to another may remain registered to vote in two states at once.

Virginia follows Ohio, Iowa, Florida, Missouri, West Virginia, Louisiana and Alabama in leaving the partnership.

At its peak, ERIC included 33 states plus the District of Columbia.

There are now only seven Republican-led states among the 25 remaining in the compact. One of those, Texas, is due to withdraw in October.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s false claims that his 2020 election defeat was the result of widespread fraud have been echoed by many of his Republican allies. Trump said without evidence in a March post on his Truth Social site that ERIC “pumps the rolls” for Democrats.

Many Republican-led states have also tightened voting rules in recent years in what they describe as an effort to prevent fraud.

Virginia’s commissioner of elections, Susan Beals, said in a May letter seen by Reuters that “uncertain costs resulting from the exit of ~20% of ERIC members” were one of the state’s reasons for leaving.

Beals, an appointee of Republican Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, also said ERIC’s mandate has expanded beyond its original intent of improving the accuracy of voter rolls.

ERIC’s executive director, Shane Hamlin, said Virginia’s withdrawal takes effect Thursday.

“We will continue our work on behalf of our remaining member states in improving the accuracy of America’s voter rolls and increasing access to voter registration for all eligible citizens,” Hamlin said.

Alice Clapman, a voting-rights attorney at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, said the departures illustrate the self-reinforcing power of election misinformation, with some states now citing others’ earlier departures as reasons to leave the group.

“It really exposes the hypocrisy of states that are talking the most about voter fraud,” Clapman said. “They’re inflating concerns about voter fraud and are also pulling out of and damaging the best tool that states have to detect voter fraud.”

Source link

Related Articles

Back to top button
bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 76,197.42 1.80%
vested-xor
Vested XOR (VXOR) $ 3,405.08 99,999.99%
ethereum
Ethereum (ETH) $ 2,922.01 3.62%
tether
Tether (USDT) $ 1.00 0.08%
solana
Solana (SOL) $ 204.18 8.88%
bnb
BNB (BNB) $ 598.25 0.60%
usd-coin
USDC (USDC) $ 1.00 0.00%
xrp
XRP (XRP) $ 0.551294 0.14%
dogecoin
Dogecoin (DOGE) $ 0.197573 2.75%
staked-ether
Lido Staked Ether (STETH) $ 2,919.03 3.55%
cardano
Cardano (ADA) $ 0.431263 16.36%
tron
TRON (TRX) $ 0.161562 0.62%
wrapped-steth
Wrapped stETH (WSTETH) $ 3,459.01 3.82%
the-open-network
Toncoin (TON) $ 4.90 0.30%
avalanche-2
Avalanche (AVAX) $ 28.09 4.78%
shiba-inu
Shiba Inu (SHIB) $ 0.000019 1.61%
wrapped-bitcoin
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) $ 76,091.39 1.77%
weth
WETH (WETH) $ 2,921.72 3.53%
chainlink
Chainlink (LINK) $ 12.93 5.11%
bitcoin-cash
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 372.92 1.18%
sui
Sui (SUI) $ 2.31 1.92%
polkadot
Polkadot (DOT) $ 4.28 5.48%
leo-token
LEO Token (LEO) $ 6.40 3.00%
usds
USDS (USDS) $ 0.991092 0.99%
wrapped-eeth
Wrapped eETH (WEETH) $ 3,073.36 3.69%
litecoin
Litecoin (LTC) $ 71.48 0.87%
uniswap
Uniswap (UNI) $ 8.74 2.11%
near
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) $ 4.22 1.56%
aptos
Aptos (APT) $ 9.70 0.68%
pepe
Pepe (PEPE) $ 0.000011 3.56%
bittensor
Bittensor (TAO) $ 501.36 3.07%
fetch-ai
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) $ 1.41 1.42%
internet-computer
Internet Computer (ICP) $ 7.74 0.22%
dai
Dai (DAI) $ 0.999708 0.04%
ethereum-classic
Ethereum Classic (ETC) $ 20.28 1.75%
monero
Monero (XMR) $ 164.04 0.04%
stellar
Stellar (XLM) $ 0.101188 3.01%
crypto-com-chain
Cronos (CRO) $ 0.11 28.58%
ethena-usde
Ethena USDe (USDE) $ 1.00 0.23%
kaspa
Kaspa (KAS) $ 0.112428 4.77%
whitebit
WhiteBIT Coin (WBT) $ 19.57 1.51%
polygon-ecosystem-token
POL (ex-MATIC) (POL) $ 0.364455 6.98%
aave
Aave (AAVE) $ 182.89 1.83%
blockstack
Stacks (STX) $ 1.67 0.12%
okb
OKB (OKB) $ 40.03 0.11%
dogwifcoin
dogwifhat (WIF) $ 2.36 1.94%
first-digital-usd
First Digital USD (FDUSD) $ 0.999444 0.00%
arbitrum
Arbitrum (ARB) $ 0.57267 0.97%
filecoin
Filecoin (FIL) $ 3.72 0.32%
mantle
Mantle (MNT) $ 0.657415 3.67%