Missouri’s secretary of state pulled us out of a voter integrity program. Now what? | Opinion

The 2024 elections are just over the horizon. While election fraud has not been an issue in Missouri, this year, our state may face a problem with outdated voter registration lists. All Missouri residents should want and expect that the lists of eligible voters maintained by local election authorities be accurate and up to date.

In 2018, to help achieve the goal of accurate and updated voter rolls, the state of Missouri joined a multistate nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC. This was at the specific request of local election authorities to improve election security and keep voting lists accurate. ERIC also allowed Missouri to identify eligible but unregistered voters — citizens who are eligible to vote but who are not registered.

Missouri was a member of ERIC from 2018 to 2023. With reports provided by ERIC during the time of our membership, local election officials in the state were able to identify 21,712 deceased voters, 18,242 in-state duplicate registrations, 368,420 in-state movers or updates, and 383,884 cross-state movers to update voter registration rolls. Indeed, with the ERIC’s Voter Participation Report, Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft was able to identify two people who illegally voted in both Missouri and Florida, and refer them for prosecution.

The benefits of membership were cost-effective: Missouri paid an initial $25,000 membership fee and annual assessments of approximately $34,000.

In March 2023, despite the evidence of its value, the secretary of state withdrew our state from membership in the ERIC system. His decision was based partly on incorrect information about the source of funding for the organization. It is funded by the annual assessments it charges participating states. He said he did not believe in the need to use lists of citizens provided by ERIC to contact citizens who are eligible to vote but are not already registered. By withdrawing from the organization, Missouri has lost the ability to update its voter rolls using multistate data that would improve and ensure accuracy.

Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick recently released a report finding that Ashcroft, who is responsible to ensure that voter registrations accurately identify registered voters entitled to vote, withdrew Missouri from the ERIC system without consulting local election officials at the 116 counties and election boards in the state, and without “plans to promptly offset the benefits received (from ERIC) to identify inaccuracies in the voter registration lists.”

As a result, the auditor’s report continues, “The decision to terminate the ERIC membership will have a negative impact on the state’s (local election authorities) and will result in them having less information to identify and correct inaccurate voter records, especially related to potentially duplicate voters in other states.” As reported in the auditor’s findings, the state’s five-year membership in ERIC provided local election authorities “information on over 770,000 potentially duplicate voter records (including more than 380,000 potentially duplicated records with other states) during the state’s participation in the membership.”

List maintenance of voter rolls ensures that new voters are added, that existing voter information is updated and that voters who have moved to another jurisdiction or died are removed. Accurate voter lists ensure that the election process moves smoothly by decreasing the use of provisional ballots, minimizing wait times at the polls and providing information about budgeting for poll workers and election equipment.

The League of Women Voters supports voter registration systems, including voter list maintenance practices, that are transparent, accurate, fair and eliminate voter roll purges. Members also support voter registration systems that are able to identify and reach out to people who are eligible to vote but are not registered.

A League committee recently concluded a study of the effects of Missouri’s participation in ERIC and the effects of withdrawal from it. The League searched for any viable replacements for a voter registration system and found no current feasible alternatives to ERIC.

As ERIC is no longer in use in Missouri, there should be a robust, fair, accurate, transparent, secure and inclusive plan to replace it.

We ask that every candidate for Missouri secretary of state in the 2024 general election understand the positive aspects of the state belonging to such a multistate organization, and that the new secretary of state will find a viable alternative to ERIC or consider rejoining it.

The right to vote is one of the most basic rights in our democracy, which is strongest when all eligible Americans can exercise that right.

We all expect accuracy in our elections, and should want every eligible citizen to be registered and able to vote.

Marilyn McLeod is president of the League of Women Voters of Missouri.