Georgia is joining forces with three Republican-led states that recently quit the voter accuracy organization called ERIC, agreeing to share information and cancel registrations of those who have moved.
The cooperation agreements with Alabama, Florida and Virginia supplement Georgia’s ongoing collaboration with 24 states that remain members of ERIC, the Electronic Registration Information Center.
Nine Republican states have withdrawn from ERIC amid conservative activists’ criticisms of the group, including concerns about sharing sensitive voter information and objections to notifying unregistered residents that they can sign up to vote.
Georgia is now partnering with 27 other states and the District of Columbia to exchange data about voters who have registered to vote elsewhere, change their addresses or died.
“Putting these agreements in place is crucial to maintaining the most accurate voter rolls in the country,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in an announcement last week. “This gives Georgia the best view into current voter status.”
Voters who the states identify as having likely moved away can be designated as “inactive,” a step toward eventually canceling their outdated registrations if they confirm to election officials that they’ve moved or decline to participate in the next two general elections.
Along with cooperation agreements with Alabama, Florida and Virginia, Georgia also solidified its voter information sharing partnership with South Carolina, which remains an ERIC participant.
As a result of Georgia’s membership in ERIC, about 432,000 Georgia voter registrations have been canceled or made inactive during the past two years, according to the secretary of state’s office.
Georgia canceled an additional 189,000 inactive voter registrations this month, a biennial effort to remove outdated voter records before next year’s presidential election.
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Credit: AP
