ERIC is essentially a left wing voter registration drive disguised as voter roll clean up. It was formed in 2012 as a membership organization primarily for blue States (it’s been gaining traction in Red States too) to clean voter rolls their way, using their rules. Originally funded by the Soros Open Society, it is now responsible for cleaning the voter rolls in 31 States, plus D.C. A top election official from each member State is appointed a seat on the ERIC Board or as an Officer, all unpaid positions. ERIC located 17 million new voters for the 2020 election, the most in the history of their organization. For comparison, they only found 5.7 million in 2012, Obama’s reelection.
The ERIC database is comprehensive and would be one of the most coveted by bad actors looking to influence an election. Member States must not only submit all details on inactive and active voters to ERIC every 60 days. But they must also provide every individual in their states Motor Vehicle Department database, both licensed and ID recipients. This combo of data is breathtaking. It’s everyone who could generate a legal ballot. It includes those approaching voting age, even those here illegally yet issued an ID by their left leaning State. This data includes names, addresses, DOB, License #, last 4 of social #, voter activity, phone, email, title and type of citizenship documentation, and much more!
ERIC doesn’t just manage lists, they demand action. But it’s not the action you would expect, like cleaning voter rolls. ERIC provides each member State a targeted list of people that are not registered to vote. The Membership Bylaws require the State to contact at least 95% of these people within 90 days, soliciting them to register. ERIC also wants specific registration profiles updated and requires the State to contact these voters within 90 days too. It’s essentially a left wing voter registration drive all paid for by the States, not the Democrat Party. The membership fee is $25,000 but costs can run into the millions to fund the activities and membership dues.
Oddly, ERIC has no requirement or mandate that member States clean up their voter rolls. States are only “strongly encouraged” to request ERIC’s voter updates at least once a year. If a member fails to make a request in 425 days, the data will be sent automatically. What’s even more odd, and seemingly corrupt, is that ERIC does NOT want to know who is voting illegally. Their rules explain that “Under no circumstances shall the members transmit any record indicating an individual is a non-citizen of the U.S.” as stated in Exhibit A, 2b. If ERIC hears no evil, then they see no evil.
ERIC uses advanced technology including Artificial Intelligence from Senzing. This data matching AI compares information collected by member states with USPS address data and Social Security death records. But no one knows how else this data collected from the 31 States is being used. J. Christian Adams recently discussed ERIC in a Breitbart podcast interview (starts 1:16:50). Adams says: “That’s part of the smoke screen. ERIC learns who gets registered from their program, so they’re able to micro target with whoever is partnered with ERIC. We don’t know who their interfacing all this data with. It could be Catalist, the massive Democrat database organization. We just don’t know. I’ve talked to some ERIC Board Members who are Secretary of States. They don’t even know what ERIC is doing. They’ve asked questions and can’t get answers.”
ERIC demands additional data, like the total number of provisional ballots cast (See Exhibit B&C). They. They want totals of provisional ballots counted, provisional’s uncounted, and why. They want to know who registered or updated their data, then voted that same day. They require data on those who registered using paper and those using electronic methods. They also want a list of all individuals in other agencies that perform voter registration functions. This includes staff in Public Libraries, Department of Public Safety, Unemployment, Dept of Health, Social Services, and so on.
Member States are currently using ERIC to hide their list maintenance data, citing it violates their ERIC contracts, even though Federal law mandates it be made public. The 1993 NVRA (Motor Voter) law includes a “Public Disclosure Provision” which allows the public inspection of “voter list maintenance records”. The Public Interest Legal Foundation with J. Christian Adams recently sued the District of Columbia for this exact reason. They expect to sue other States as well. Those leading election audits should demand “Voter List Maintenance Records” by citing the Federal law U.S.C. 20507(i)(1) and not use the weaker FOIA requests for maintenance records. See DC case for details.
ERIC was funded by an “anonymous” donor and The Pew Center On The States. This grant was provided by the George Soros Open Society. David Becker, an experienced Democrat election lawyer, left the Justice Department to create the ERIC architecture while employed at Pew Charitable Trust. Originally a blue State project, ERIC had 11 member states by 2014 and 22 by 2017. ERIC has not published an annual report since 2017, almost 5 years ago. Becker, who still has a seat on the ERIC board, went on to create the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR) in 2016. He distributed $69.5 million in grants from Zuckerberg for the 2020 election using similar methods as CTCL. His bias and no-holds barred Democrat activism is part of the reason our elections have become so untrustworthy.
The former Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill said they were working on removing David Becker from the ERIC board, expecting this to happen in 2023. Why the delay? This June 2022 report showing Becker obtained ERIC data for his own non-profit, to help Democrats, was still not enough to get him canned. Why?
Becker has been the guy behind the scenes pulling the strings at ERIC. He’s why this tiny non-profit always has leftists in control, unwilling to police itself, or provide any transparency. Becker conducts most every ERIC media interview and is first to counter the negative image of ERIC using his press contacts. Although the Executive Director is Shane Hamlin, he’s just a figurehead. Hamlin was just a kid some 13 years ago when recruited to work on Pew Charitable Trust’s “Voter Modernization Project”, which was ERIC. He’s been under Becker’s thumb ever since. Don’t feel sorry for Hamlin. He aligned himself with a known scumbag, even back then.
When that report came out it should have taken hours, not months to purge Becker, but he’s still involved. That means the data will always be in question as Becker leverages any advantage he can find, all ethics aside, to help the Democrat Party.
J. Christian Adams from PILF explains: “The history of ERIC is important. Kansas State Cross Check was a group of States doing this for free. This caused leftists to go wild. They sued Cross Check participant States, particularly Indiana, and got court orders to basically shut down Cross Check. There’s no longer a competitor to ERIC. Once this happened, red states started joining ERIC like GA, FL, TX. This is what really opened the flood gates to ERIC’s power. If a State like Georgia wants to know who’s registered in both Louisiana and Georgia, there’s no one else.
Mr. Adams also says: “One thing we do know is ERIC is hiding the facts about how States are making these decisions. It’s a system breakdown. It’s a leveraging of power of who writes the rules. It’s not just outright cheating, it’s way more sophisticated involving who has power, who can see records, who gets to vote, and who are the observers. It’s (ERIC) a comprehensive suite manipulating the process. And it’s not always cheating. Sometimes it’s totally legal what they do.”
In 2016, leaked funding documents showed Soros money, partnered with the Rockefeller Family Fund, was used to push changes to voter registration policies at the national level. Soros also gave money to Pew Center On The States for voter list maintenance practices favorable to Soros at the state level. Soros also funded the Brennan Center for Justice and the Advancement Project. These two groups became the loudest voices in opposing election integrity and STOPPING any effort that would ensure only U.S. citizens vote.
Alabama Secretary of State Investigates ERIC
After he won his election in 2022, Alabama’s new Secretary of State, Wes Allen, withdrew the state from the ERIC voter registration system.
The Gateway Pundit commends Mr. Allen for keeping his campaign promise to protect elections and secure the personal information of Alabama residents.
However, Mr. Allen was not done with ERIC. He was in the Washington D.C. area in February 2023 for the 2023 NASS Winter Conference. It’s the annual meeting for all Secretary of States. In a brilliant move, he decided to visit the published address for ERIC’s headquarters. That address is 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Ste 600, Washington, DC 20036.
Allen said, “Since I was in town, I went to see the ERIC Headquarters. What I found was that there was no ERIC headquarters at that address. There were no employees. There were no servers. There was no ERIC presence of any kind. Instead. I found a virtual office that is rentable by the day. What it was missing was people, servers and any sign of the ERIC team.”
This 12 story location, known as the Longfellow Building, is partly operated by a company called Expansive. They offer virtual workspaces across the country and rent space by the day. Other companies offer this same exact 6th floor Suite 600 address for rent too. In fact, the Global Innovation Fund, Dezenhall Resources, Grassroots Plus, and other businesses have the exact same address, including the same suite number, as ERIC’s headquarters.
Posted on the Alabama SOS website, Allen explains his ERIC visit,
SOS Wes Allen: “Before I took office, Alabama transmitted the personal information of millions of our citizens to this private organization for the past several years. That information is stored on a server somewhere but we do not know where. There is no ERIC operation at the location they claim is their office. A lot of personal data and taxpayer money has been transferred to ERIC. Where is that data? Where are the employees? Where are the offices? Where are the computers?”
As previously reported by GP, ERIC has 3 employees that operate as remote staff. The Executive Director, Shane Hamlin, resides in Washington State. He has been unwilling to disclose where the data resides, not even the city. Ericka Haas is the Systems Engineer from the onset and resides in Oregon. GP reported on Sarah Whitt, their “Systems and Data Specialist”, hired in 2019. She resides in Wisconsin. Although her title indicates a “Specialist”, she previously worked for the State of WI managing their voter rolls for over a decade. You could say she “specialized” in creating the worst, most easily corrupted voter rolls in the country, containing 3.4 million ineligible voters. Now you know why ERIC hired her.
When that report came out it should have taken hours, not months to purge Becker, but he’s still involved. That means the data will always be in question as Becker leverages any advantage he can find, all ethics aside, to help the Democrat Party.
Well done, Secretary of State Wes Allen! You sir, are a true American patriot!
Source: TheGatewayPundit, TGP2
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