Patriot News/PennLive (Op-Ed): Effective, useful, and secure: Why Dush is wrong about ERIC
Patriot News/PennLive: Effective, useful, and secure: Why Dush is wrong about ERIC
When was the last time you thought about Pennsylvania’s voter rolls? Besides checking to make sure your voter registration is up-to-date, have you considered how much goes on behind the scenes to make our elections run smoothly?
My guess is you don’t think too much about our state’s voter rolls or what’s going on behind the scenes. You know why? Because there’s a small group of Pennsylvanians who think about our voter rolls nearly all the time: The election administrators at the Department of State and in our 67 counties. The unsung heroes of elections big and small, our election administrators make sure our voter rolls are accurate.
There is no viable alternative to ERIC. Other states have tried, but to no avail; for example, the Interstate Crosscheck System, a program started in Kansas, had a 99% error rate. It was found to eliminate about 200 registrations used to cast legitimate votes for every one duplicate voter registration. As explained by the Louisiana Illuminator, “Replicating what ERIC built would be a major technical, scientific, administrative and political challenge, even for a state committed to making it work.”
In short: Dush has hopped on to the ERIC disinformation bandwagon. In January 2022, a right-wing website known for pushing conspiracy theories set its target on ERIC. In a series of articles, the website alleged that ERIC was in cahoots with Democrats. These allegations were baseless — ERIC is composed of officials from both parties and provides states with nonpartisan information — and yet, they spread like wildfire in right-leaning circles.
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