Judicial Watch has racked up some successes with its lawsuits about bloated voting rolls. If Judicial Watch actually cared about strong list maintenance, it would be Eric’s greatest champion.” Lang stressed that Eric “has proven to be the most effective tool for ensuring cleaner and more accurate rolls. “For example, in 2021, its lawsuit against Pennsylvania election officials was kicked out of court for its reliance on outdated data and its unsupported claim that registration rates were, in its estimation, ‘too high’.” “Judicial Watch is notorious among both advocates and election officials for its aggressive attempts to force states to purge their rolls based on shoddy and faulty data and methodology,” said Lang. Trump on 6 March used his social media platform Truth Social to urge GOP-led states to “immediately pull out of ERIC, the terrible Voter Registration System that ‘pumps the rolls’ for Democrats and does nothing to clean them up”.įitton did not respond to requests for comment on Judicial Watch’s attacks on Eric.įor Judicial Watch, whose overall revenues soared with help from major rightwing donors during Trump’s presidency from $53m in 2017 to $124m in 2021, the anti-Eric drive comes after years of election fights by Fitton that voting rights advocates say are badly flawed.īefore its current attacks on Eric, Judicial Watch had long alleged bloated voting rolls in states and filed lawsuits, or threatened them, if states didn’t take action.
Since last year, seven Republican-led states including Alabama, Florida, Missouri and Ohio, have pulled out of Eric as conservatives and Trump have stepped up attacks on the multi-state consortium. The consortium was launched to keep voter registration rolls up to date, thwart possible voter fraud and spur voter registration.
The group’s 10-page error-riddled white paper, which was posted on its website on 9 March, falsely slams Eric as a “syndicate founded by leftists” and charges that Eric has been “far more effective at swelling voter registration rolls than at keeping them clean”.ĭanielle Lang, the lead voting rights litigator at the non-partisan Campaign Legal Center, told the Guardian that the white paper was badly flawed and “makes claims largely based on supposition, inaccuracies and personal attacks”.Įric was started in 2012 by seven states, including four led by Republicans, and is the sole data-sharing program for states since there is no clearinghouse for voter registration.
Fitton’s attack on Eric is part of a growing campaign by Trump-allied election denialist groups and Trump to urge member states to leave the consortium, prompting scathing criticism from voting rights advocates and election experts including some GOP officials.
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