The State of Missouri has been a member of the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) since 2017 and has paid annual dues of up to $50,000.
But local conservative groups are calling on the Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft to disengage.
"The ERIC system was created by David Becker, an experienced Democrat election lawyer, The Pew Research Center On The States, and was funded by a grant provided by the George Soros Open Society," wrote Byron Keelin, president of Freedom Principle MO, in a Feb. 27 letter addressed to Ashcroft.
ERIC is a non-profit organization created to assist states in improving the accuracy of voter rolls by identifying duplicate registrants from state to state.
"It's an information sharing system in that whenever a voter registers, it's uploaded into the system and it's supposed to match with other states to verify, however, that's not really happening," Keelin said in an interview.
Linda Rantz, a co-organizer of Missouri Canvassers, is skeptical of ERIC, too.
“The voter rolls, since the time ERIC came into the state, have inflated, and they're about 21% over the national average of where they should be,” she said. “ERIC doesn't seem to be a good tool to clean or to reduce the voter rolls.”
Missouri Canvassers is associated with Mike Lindell, who unsuccessfully campaigned to be elected chair of the National Republican Committee last month.
“We have a problem with too many names on the roles, and we need to be able to prove that whoever is voting is a legal citizen and truly qualified to be a registered voter in Missouri,” Rantz told the St. Louis Record.
For the past five years, Missouri has transmitted the personal information of its citizens to ERIC, such as driver’s license numbers, last four digits of Social Security numbers, date of birth, documentation of citizenship, phone numbers, and email addresses.
But on February 15, 2023, Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen made an unannounced visit to ERIC’s published address at 1201 Connecticut Ave NW in Washington, DC, and found that no ERIC headquarters existed at the location.
“There is no ERIC operation at the location they claim is their office,” Allen stated in a press release. “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?”
Sen. Bill Eigel (R-St. Charles County) sponsored Senate Bill 98, which if approved by the legislature would terminate state ties to ERIC and remove all electronic voting and election equipment.
"We are demanding that the Missouri legislature immediately pass SB 98 and end our dependence on all automatic tabulating equipment, electronic voting machines, and voting registration machines in elections," Keelin told the St. Louis Record.
Louisiana and Alabama have already terminated their ERIC agreements. The official withdrawal process requires 90 days.
"Having inconsistent voter rolls is the problem here," Keelin added. "We'll never be able to verify that our elections are secure or that everybody who is registered to vote properly voted.