FRom Jessica Huseman at Votebeat:

We’re back to exploring the truth about the Electronic Registration Information Center and explaining the important role ERIC has in securing elections. First we looked at why Louisiana seems to have suspended its participation in the voter-roll-matching program, then we took stock of the value other states — red and blue — have found in the program without harboring any similar suspicions.

Now I want to lay out the implications if states were to remove themselves from ERIC. In summary: It hurts the state itself, but it also hurts every other state in the program — especially the neighbors of the state in question.

Let’s first talk about data. ERIC is, to put it simply, a program that matches one state’s data with another state’s data to see if the same person is on two voter rolls, has moved across state lines, might be dead, or has undergone a number of other changes. In Louisiana alone since 2014, ERIC has identified 54,600 people who have moved out of state and 16,300 deceased voters. When you have more data to match against, you get more matches, so these numbers go up. This, folks, is just how it goes. It’s math. Thus, the reverse is also true: When there is less data, you get fewer matches and the program is not as robust. Makes sense, right? 

So, sure, Louisiana’s voter-roll accuracy is suffering the most from its (hopefully temporary) hiatus from this program, but everyone else is also a little bit worse off for not being able to match their voter roll against that state’s. Texas, the only ERIC member state that borders Louisiana, suffers more than every other state, because we have long known that while in-state moving is the most likely reason for a person’s voter registration to be inaccurate, the next most common reason is picking up and putting down in a bordering state. If any of the folks who commute from East Texas to Shreveport, Louisiana, decide to move to be closer to work, neither state will be aware of that change. Texas and Louisiana are also constantly trading residents because of the intensifying hurricanes on the Gulf Coast, and Louisiana’s withdrawal removes a key way both states would make those adjustments. As many as 250,000 people relocated to the Houston area from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, for example. 

Louisiana is the very first state to ever step away from ERIC, and we’ve demonstrated that the decision appears to have been based on conspiracy and rumor. While that’s bad for the citizens of Louisiana, elections officials in every other member state are decidedly not thrilled about this. So far, no other state has contacted ERIC with similar concerns, but they have expressed their frustration about Louisiana’s pullout. 

Shane Hamlin, the executive director of ERIC, says that while the way the matches are done will not improve or worsen because of the addition or subtraction of any given state, “the more states that are in, the more cross state movers we can identify.” This has been a huge selling point for the program, and specifically helps ERIC recruit states whose border neighbors are members. “It improves ERIC’s value,” he said.