VA Gov. Youngkin Vetoes 'ERIC' Bill
A bill to force Virginia back into the controversial voter-list group ERIC was among a stack of 100 bills on Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin's desk.
UPDATE — Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin has vetoed one of two controversial election bills that would have forced Virginia back into the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) and sent another back for amendments.
The bills, SB 196 and SB 606, were among roughly 100 that lawmakers sent to Gov. Youngkin’s desk, with a deadline of 11:59 PM tonight for action.
—SB 606 would have forced Virginia to re-enter a contract with ERIC. In announcing the veto, the governor’s office wrote:
The decision for the Commonwealth to exit the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) in 2023 was a result of persistent management issues, improper data use, escalating costs, and the inability to meet statutory requirements for border state information sharing ERIC's reluctance to implement reforms and address a bipartisan working group of member states concerns reflects a departure from its core mission of improving voter roll accuracy, which called into question Virginia’s continued participation.
This is particularly concerning due to the controversy surrounding ERIC's sharing of personal information with external organizations. These organizations are funded by sources that the General Assembly has on a bipartisan basis prohibited Virginia’s election officials from accepting.
The financial burden of rejoining ERIC includes membership fees, which have increased more than 115% since 2022, and participation expenses. ERIC’s mandatory Eligible but Unregistered mailing will cost the Commonwealth hundreds of thousands of dollars, which is superfluous considering Virginia's Department of Motor Vehicles' automatic registration policies and same-day registration for voting.
Since leaving ERIC, Virginia established data-sharing agreements with numerous states incurring no additional costs. Additionally, the Department of Elections has increased its data sources by collaborating with forty-one states to obtain driver's license surrender data, while ERIC only provides data sharing with twenty-five states.
For a backgrounder on why Virginia’s Dept. of Elections exited ERIC, see the letter from Commissioner Susan Beals here.
Another bill appears to be headed back to the assembly with amendments.
—SB 196 addresses voter registration rules and introduces list maintenance data standards to how the Dept. of Elections works with other states on voter-maintenance tasks to check on residency of voters, which it has launched since exiting ERIC.
Perhaps more important, it would do away with voter’s rights to challenge another voter’s eligibility, and is governed by statute.
Gov. Youngkin’s office announced it was sending SB 196 back to the assembly “to reinstate longstanding process for voter registration appeals and eliminating certain criteria for unique identifiers.”
SB 196 would have removed “provisions allowing general registrars to adjudicate challenges to a voter's registration, reserving such process to the courts,” and would route appeals through one court in Virginia’s Richmond Circuit court.
Twelve more election-related bills of concern are expected to hit the governor’s desk in the coming days and weeks.
We will keep you posted. Until then, that’s a wrap until next edition of EPEC Team newsletter when we run down more election news. #
This post has been updated to reflect the veto actions and amendments.