Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed a bill requiring the state to rejoin a voter-registration consortium known as ERIC — the Electronic Registration Information Center. The multi-state compact to maintain voter rolls has seen nine states leave over the past two years, as Republican-led states lost confidence in the neutrality of the system, designed by partisan Democrats with initial funding from George Soros through the Pew Charitable Trusts.
The Virginia bill passed along party lines. Democrats control the Senate and House and wanted Virginia back in ERIC, which shares data from motor vehicle agencies and voter registries across its 25 remaining member states, which include Alaska. It’s unclear if they have the votes to override his veto.
Last year, the Alaska Division of Elections said it was evaluating its membership in the ERIC database system, but no decision to stay or leave was ever final.
Nine of 33 member states have dropped out of ERIC membership because of concerns about the organization’s partisan origins, current political biases, connections with leftist groups, and various data policies that appear to favor Democrats.
The nine states that pulled out of ERIC are all led by Republicans, including Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Iowa, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, and Mississippi.
