By guest author, Patrice Johnson

Remember the viral Roomba YouTube showing a robot vacuum-smearing dog excrement across every square inch of a rug?

Even these days, if you rave about the wonders of your little Roomba, chances are a doubting Thomas will pooh-pooh the thought and cite fears of fecal spread.

We have to ask, How much raw feces do you have on your floors?

If you’re wondering where this message is going, it’s this: There are real and imaginary threats in this world. A rational person needs to step back and decide, Is this a real and present danger to my life, my family, and this republic?

Thankfully, my household lacks a loose-boweled dog, so pushing the green light on an unsupervised vacuum poses little existential risk. On the other hand, Michigan’s participation in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC)–well, that’s a different matter. Thankfully, the word is spreading.

This month, Alabama’s newly inaugurated Secretary of State followed the lead of Louisiana and suspended participation in ERIC.

“I have heard repeatedly as I travelled through the state for the last year and a half that people want us out of ERIC,” Wes Allen stated in a press release. “They don’t want their personal information or the personal information of their children to be sent to this out-of-state group. I promised I would end our participation, and that is what I am taking these steps to do.”

To cap off the move, ABC News, a member of the all-too-often-silent legacy media, reported the story. C

As PIME has reported since last January 2022, ERIC is a nationwide program that claims to help states maintain voter rolls by identifying potential registered voters who have passed away, moved out of state, or have duplicate registrations. (See Facts about ERIC.) But ERIC fails so miserably to perform those tasks that one has to question if cleaning the rolls is truly ERIC’s intended purpose. (See Settling the Confusion about ERIC).

ERIC has come into question due to its roots as a George Soros-funded, a 4-employee organization that hasn’t filed an annual report since 2017.

George Soros – Photo by Michael Wuertenberg

Other concerns about ERIC include its collection of personal data from voter lists and driver’s license data, which includes minors who are not old enough to vote. Since ERIC is a third-party organization, it is not subject to federal Freedom of Information (FOIA) laws designed to protect election transparency.

From 1819 News – A week after his election as Alabama’s next Secretary of State, Wes Allen sent a certified letter to several executives within the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). The letter stated that Alabama would cease participation with the non-profit upon his inauguration on January 16, 2023, and read in part as follows:

Please consider this notice that Alabama will not continue to participate and is officially withdrawing from the Electronic Registration Information Center, Inc. (ERIC) and all of its programs. Upon my inauguration on January 16, 2023, I will issue another letter on official government letterhead again notifying you of Alabama’s withdrawal from ERIC. Upon my swearing in, we will immediately and permanently cease to transmit any information regarding any citizen in the State of Alabama to your organization and will no longer participate in any aspect of the ERIC program.

Immediately following his elections, Allen said he would set up a cooperative system within the state of Alabama. He intends to use the USPS Change of Address program to identify potential out-of-state voters. He also plans to work with other agencies, such as the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s driver’s license offices and the Alabama Department of Public Health’s Office of Vital Statistics, to maintain voter rolls.

Allen said that Alabama pays a fee of around $28,000 a year to be a member of ERIC and that payment would end with the state’s withdrawal from the system.

Some threats to life and liberty are real and imminent. Roomba? Not so much. But ERIC? Reasonable people could hardly be faulted for quaking in their boots. Just think, teeny-tiny ERIC has access to the personal and legally protected information of 61% of all driver-aged and older residents of this nation.

ERIC’s contract allows it to share all this legally protected, personally identifiable information (PII) with any subcontractor of its choosing. Not even state officials, let alone local election clerks, are privy to its inner workings.

To make matters worse, because ERIC is a third party, it is not subject to Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests. Federally mandated transparency laws do not apply to ERIC, and we all know democracy dies in darkness.

Nobody Needs ERIC.

Alternatives to ERIC are readily available. The office in charge of a state’s elections can hire an analyst with a visor. Every month that person can compare the current voter rolls to the U.S. Postal Service’s National Change of Address Link. After lunch, he or she can check the Social Security death and citizenship tracking databases. Following a 3:00 coffee break, our analyst can take a gander at the interstate child support database and identify registrants who have moved inside or out of the state.

Other government agencies know when a resident dies, moves, becomes a jailed felon or falls behind on child support. They don’t hand access to our private, legally protected, and personally identifiable information over to a secretive, black box operation.

Alert your legislators, your Secretary of State, and your Attorney General. Tell them to follow Alabama’s and Louisiana’s leadership and get out of ERIC.

 

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