The Electronic Registration Information Center is no longer as bi-partisan as it set out to be, according to a local GOP candidate for Secretary of State.
“I have been a staunch proponent of making Missouri’s elections more safe, accurate, and fair by removing duplicative, fraudulent, deceased, and multi-state voter registrations,” Shane Schoeller told the St. Louis Record. “ERIC is not a suitable partner in achieving this goal due to their unwillingness to separate with partisan individuals who by their presence create doubt about the integrity of their organization.”
Schoeller, who is currently Greene County clerk, was reacting to the news that Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft had withdrawn from ERIC last week.
ERIC is a non-profit membership organization created by state election officials to help improve the accuracy of state voter rolls and register more eligible Americans to vote.
“We need to find another entity that can help make sure that we're doing everything we can to keep our records up to date for every voter and part of that challenge is we need more resources,” Schoeller told the St. Louis Record. “The legislature is going to have to give more resources to local election authorities.”
Schoeller is campaigning for the Secretary of State office in the 2024 election. He previously served as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives representing District 139 from 2007 to 2013 where he was Speaker Pro Tempore.
"My plan if elected Secretary of State is to include securing Voter ID requirements, routine election audits, signature verification, and working with our local election officials to ensure they have the resources and tools necessary to ensure our voter rolls as a state are up-to-date and accurate to ensure only legal, Missouri citizens are able to vote," Schoeller said in an interview.
As previously reported in the St. Louis Record, the State of Missouri has been a member of the Electronic Registration Information Center since 2017 and has paid annual dues of up to $50,000.
Ashcroft joined state officials in Florida and West Virginia in departing from ERIC’s network.
Ashcroft in his withdrawal letter stated that ERIC was missing a mechanism that requires states to check for multi-state voters.
“They do not have the trust of the people when they fail to demonstrate they are a non-partisan organization,” Schoeller added. “Moving forward, we must take appropriate actions to make Missouri the gold standard for election integrity reforms that enhance the dependability of accurate voter registration records.”
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, 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.
ERIC Executive Director Shane Hamlin blamed the withdrawals on misinformation.
“ERIC’s Washington, D.C. address is a mailing address only,” Hamlin said in a statement online. “Like other organizations, our employees work remotely. This approach reduces operating costs without sacrificing security or our ability to serve our member’s needs. Our servers are housed in a managed, secure data center located here in the U.S. Secure remote access to the data center is limited to only employees who need it to perform their duties.”