The decision to pull Alabama out of ERIC was fueled by right-wing conspiracies that spread last year, and has alarmed election administration professionals.
As an Alabama lawmaker, Wes Allen cheered legal efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election—and he rode that “Stop the Steal” persona to win the election for secretary of state, Alabama’s chief elections official, last fall. Now in office, Allen has wasted no time putting his rhetoric into action.
On his first day in office on Monday, Allen terminated Alabama’s membership in the Electronic Registration Information Center, a consortium of roughly 30 states that share data about their voter rolls to keep them up to date, citing concerns about data privacy.
“I made a promise to the people of Alabama that ending our state’s relationship with the ERIC organization would be my first official act as Secretary of State,” he said.
Allen’s quick move, fueled by right-wing conspiracies about ERIC that spread last year, alarmed election administration professionals.
“Anything that makes elections more secure is a target for the election deniers, and the attacks on ERIC are just another tactic in this effort,” said David Becker, the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, an organization that works closely with election administrators.
Becker, who is a non-voting member of ERIC’s board after helping spearhead its launch a decade ago, attributed the decision to the lies about election...
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