Welcome to the May edition of The Lever – reaching you as you settle in after Memorial Day Weekend. Our democracy is strongest when everyone has a voice.
Voter rolls: (almost) every state has them. They allow election officials to keep track of registered voters – including adding new, updating existing, and removing outdated records to keep rolls up-to-date and secure. Over the past year, one trusted tool designed to do just that has been subject to intense scrutiny in a number of states, threatening the efficacy of the program and inter-state collaboration proven to keep rolls clean. In this month's Hot Policy Take, we look at the sudden scrutiny facing the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) and what you need to know about the shifting landscape for voter roll maintenance and registration nationwide.
Later in the issue, we share an update on Texas following the conclusion of the state's regular biennial legislative session (and start of its first special session) this past weekend. The regular session saw major election bills targeting ERIC and Harris County advance to the governor's desk for approval. We also shine a light on the important work taking place in North Carolina, where Common Cause North Carolina and Democracy North Carolina are mobilizing – and educating – voters in response to a court decision late last month requiring that North Carolina implement for the first time a 2018 voter ID law that had previously been found unconstitutional.
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For more than a decade, the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) has been used by both Republican and Democratic-led states as an interstate compact enabling member states to exchange information and improve the accuracy of their voter registration lists. It has become an essential tool for election officials to use to prevent people from being registered and voting in multiple states. At the start of this year, it had grown to a membership of over thirty states and D.C.
However, in recent months, ERIC has become yet another popular, nonpartisan tool in election administration to suddenly fall under intense scrutiny from state lawmakers and organizations seeking to restrict voting access and undermine trust in our elections. Read more to see how certain states are suddenly bringing the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a widely trusted election list tool, under scrutiny, along with other changes in voter registration and list maintenance happening around the country.
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BY THE NUMBERS
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The Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) is a nonpartisan organization with a long history of bipartisan use. ERIC improves election security, keeps voter lists accurate, and is an essential tool for election officials to prevent people from being registered in multiple states.
But recently, after a campaign of misinformation, eight states have chosen to leave ERIC: Florida, West Virginia, Louisiana, Missouri, Alabama, Ohio, Iowa, and Virginia.
This makes ERIC yet another common-sense, nonpartisan tool in election administration to suddenly fall under intense scrutiny from state lawmakers, with several state legislatures considering bills that would explicitly or implicitly require their state to exit the program.
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WHAT WE'RE READING
The Texas Legislature approved several restrictive election laws over the weekend – just beating out the clock before the state's regular session concluded on Monday. Although a special session was called late Monday night (for now, solely aimed at property taxes and border security measures), several high-profile election bills now await final approval from Governor Greg Abbott. Two key bills constitute a de facto takeover of election administration in the state's largest county, while another increases the penalty for illegal voting from a misdemeanor to a felony. The New York Times has more:
"Senate Bill 1750 eliminates the appointed position of elections administrator, which has been in place in Harris County only since late 2020. If the bill becomes law with the governor’s signature, the county must return to its previous system of running elections, in which the county clerk and the county tax collector-assessor split responsibilities…. Senate Bill 1933…would give broad new powers to the secretary of state, appointed by the governor, to direct how elections are run in the county if there are complaints and to petition a court to replace the top election officials when deemed necessary."
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FROM OUR PARTNERS -
Common Cause NC
North Carolina voters will face more barriers to the ballot box this year after the State Supreme Court reinstated a restrictive photo ID law – one that was struck down by the same court just a few months prior. Common Cause North Carolina, Democracy North Carolina, and others have since sprung into action, convening a People's Town Hall to address potential election policy changes in the state. The groups have also flexed their deep roots all across the state by mobilizing voters at the county level – driving both grassroots advocacy in the legislature and significant voter education work to inform North Carolinians of recent changes to law.
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THE MARKUP
The Markup is VRL’s weekly legislative update for voting rights insiders. If you’d like to get insights straight to your inbox each Monday, head here to sign up.
Here’s a brief update on what we’re watching this week, and a sneak peek into what you can expect from The Markup each week:
Last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a new elections omnibus bill into law. Among its many changes, the bill imposes new duties, restrictions, and possible fines on voter registration groups, who promptly filed three separate lawsuits in response. Another notable provision warns voters that a voter registration card – despite being official notice of successful registration – does not mean a person is eligible to vote. This provision supports state efforts to prosecute people who mistakenly believed they were eligible to vote based on receipt of a voter registration card.
Before Texas’ regular legislative session ended Monday, legislators passed several bills including one creating state oversight of Harris county elections, a requirement that Texas leave ERIC, and a bill increasing the penalty for voting while ineligible to a felony. Texas’ first special session officially began at 9 p.m. Monday night.
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed several election bills. Among those are bills that would have required the state leave ERIC and made public ballot images, cast vote records, and voter registration information.
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