Protecting North Carolina’s Voter Rolls


Summary:

  • Concern over North Carolina’s voter rolls has an clear and available solution: ERIC
  • ERIC is a voluntary, bipartisan interstate data-sharing agreement to remove errors and duplicates in voter registrations
  • North Carolina lawmakers made a major and puzzling error in blocking participation in ERIC

Accurate voter registration information – or “voter rolls” – is a fundamental pillar of political legitimacy. In an increasingly complex electoral landscape, maintaining accurate voter rolls is not a mere technicality; it is a core responsibility of responsible governance. North Carolina is fortunate to have a professional and highly competent State Board of Elections agency with deep experience in navigating these challenges. Because of their work, North Carolina’s elections enjoy strong integrity, voter fraud is almost nonexistent, and where election crimes do occur, they are caught and swiftly corrected.

Nevertheless, “better” is always possible and worth striving for. As the state once again encounters bad-faith accusations of voter fraud by disgraced Republican Judge Jefferson Griffin in his unsuccessful bid for a seat on the state Supreme Court, the question of how best to maintain accurate voter rolls is once again top of mind. Fortunately, the state has one obvious option for improvement ready at its disposal: the Electronic Registration Information Center, or “ERIC.”

ERIC offers a proven, sophisticated and secure solution to make North Carolina’s voter rolls more accurate and reliable than ever before. Yet inexplicably, and despite interminable rhetoric about “election integrity,” North Carolina’s lawmakers have suddenly balked.

Better data for voter roll maintenance

Established in 2012, ERIC offers a modern and common-sense approach to interstate voter registration maintenance. At its core, ERIC is a voluntary and bipartisan interstate collaborative that now includes 21 states and Washington, D.C. Together, member states agree to securely share and cross-reference voter registration data across state boundaries in order to identify and eliminate duplicates, deceased voters, and people who have moved from one state to another.

The system’s methodology is both comprehensive and precise. It systematically compares voter registration records against multiple comprehensive official data sources, including voter data, motor vehicle databases and Social Security Administration records. In 2024 alone, ERIC helped its member states identify tens of thousands of deceased voters for elimination, hundreds of thousands of duplicates, and over two million voters who had moved.

Lower quality is a choice

In 2022, Republican lawmakers in North Carolina demonstrated support for participation in ERIC, even going so far as allocating funding for the state’s membership. This appeared to be a pragmatic step toward improving election administration. But following a cascade of now-familiar right-wing conspiracism, those same lawmakers abruptly reversed course in 2023, explicitly blocking North Carolina’s involvement. This sudden policy shift raises obvious and legitimate questions about the genuine motivations behind stated “concern” for election administration in the state.

The reversal defies logic. After all, if lawmakers truly want clean and accurate voter rolls, why reject a proven, bipartisan solution that has demonstrated success for more than a decade?

By withdrawing from ERIC, North Carolina’s lawmakers made a conscious choice for a less effective and reliable voter registration system. Without interstate cooperation, North Carolina is losing out on critical capabilities essential for maintaining accurate voter rolls. Specifically, the state now lacks state of the art mechanisms to:

These consequences are significant, particularly at a time when many voters hold concerns about the integrity of our elections. Because of these lawmakers’ choices, hundreds of thousands of potential registration updates remain undetected today. After all, the state’s voter rolls can be only as accurate as the data the State Board of Elections has access to.

Beyond the immediate technical concerns, North Carolina’s decision on ERIC carries broader implications. Voters’ confidence stems in large part to the perceived integrity of the voter registration process. When citizens perceive that voter rolls are incomplete, outdated, or potentially manipulated, they may become less likely to engage in the electoral process itself. This erosion of trust can lead to decreased voter participation, undermining the very elections voters say they want to safeguard. Moreover, in an era of heightened political polarization, maintaining transparent and accurate voter registration systems becomes even more crucial. Citizens across the political spectrum must have confidence that electoral processes are transparent, fair and systematic.

Less meddling, and more rational election management

The ongoing manufactured turmoil over North Carolina’s voter registration system is the perfect opportunity to reverse course and recommit to ERIC. Fair, accurate, and transparent election administration is not, and must not become, a partisan goal – but instead one that preserves the ability of any party (or person) to make their voice heard in our election system.

ERIC offers a secure, data-driven solution that should transcend partisan boundaries. It represents a pragmatic, open and collaborative approach to maintaining the accuracy and reliability of voter registration databases. The system’s demonstrated success across a bipartisan coalition of states provides compelling evidence of effectiveness.