by Patrice Johnson
Sept. 9, 2022
Attorney Erick Kaardal laid out a compelling case that Wisconsin’s participation in ERIC, the Electronic Registration Information Center, violates the federal Help America Vote Act, HAVA. (Go to video 22:00). In Kaardal's Sept. 8 testimony before the Wisconsin Assembly (state legislature) Committee on Campaigns, the special counsel to the Thomas More Society argued that federal law unequivocally prohibits states from farming out access to their voter rolls, let alone to an opaque, third-party nonprofit.
“I don’t think ERIC was honest from the beginning. That’s the problem.” Kaardal pointed out the absurdity of the argument that the state government needed ERIC to track people and clean its voter rolls. “This is the Wisconsin state government. We’re going to say we can’t track people?” He pointed out the state’s proven track record in collecting taxes.
“Some things are better done by oneself even if done badly,” he explained, like dressing and feeding oneself. Even so, he said ERIC is failing to clean the rolls. “They are not doing a good job,” he said.
Muliple sources, including the American Policy Center, support Kaardal's claim. APC's recent Settling the Confusion about ERIC found that "NONE of the Red State non-members have rolls in excess of their voting age population." In contrast, APC's analysis revealed, "Fifteen (50%) of the ERIC states...have voter rolls containing more registrations than their citizen voting age populations."
APC concluded, "The numbers tell the story. Being an ERIC member INFLATES the voter rolls, while non-members apparently do much better at culling their rolls and keeping more accurate lists."
Take Michigan as an example. The chart below depicts what happened to Michigan's voter rolls after Sec. of State Jocelyn Benson (D) joined the state in ERIC in 2019. The runaway blue line tracks the number of Michigan's registered voters as it spiked northward of the voting age population for the first time after the Great Lakes State became a member in ERIC. (The dotted vertical line marks entry into ERIC.) As of Aug. 11, 2022, the number climbed above 104%. This blue, Jack-in-the-Beanstalk-like creeper--an impossible number--continues to worm upward at a geometric rate.
Even the active registered voters now threaten to surmount the census-verified population of voting-aged residents. To be clear: It's impossible to have more voters than voting aged residents.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) has an active and escalating suit against the Mich. SOS for failing to remove 26,000 dead voters from the state's voter rolls prior to the 2020 election. As reported in Pure Integrity Michigan Election's Lights Out report, five dead voters in East Lansing alone voted.
This data and more support Kaardal's claim that ERIC is NOT cleaning the voter rolls.
Kaardal also cited HAVA's requirement for voter data to be kept secure within each state, yet ERIC is not only receiving out-state information, it is sharing the personal, protected information of every resident in 31 ERIC-participating states with CEIR and other undisclosed leftist organizations, plus an artificial intelligence software company.
According to ERIC's contract, it is even receiving the protected, personal data of those who decline to register to vote or transact with the state's department of motor vehicles (DMV). All citizens--noncitizens and those who wish to protect their identities included--are having their private, legally protected information shared with ERIC and other non-authorized parties.
Kaardal never used the word monopoly, but logic dictates a person to wonder: What mind-boggling power could ERIC wield with the intimate details of 60% of the nation's voting age population in its maw?
In addition to citing ERIC’s complete lack of transparency, Kaardal made reference to the center's ties to George Soros and David Becker’s CEIR, which received $69 million in Zuckerbucks in the run-up to the Nov. 2020 elections. Becker, a far left activist who has had ethics charges filed against him, founded ERIC while employed at PEW Research. Documents from Verity Vote show Becker continues to play an active management role in ERIC.
“Anything is better than sharing with ERIC,” Kaardal concluded. The grateful committee responded with positive comments and questions.
Patrice Johnson is chair of Michigan Fair Elections and Pure Integrity Michigan Elections. She authored The Fall and Rise of Tyler Johnson, the first-place winner of the 2017 National Indie Excellence Award for new nonfiction. Johnson has founded four successful technology companies and holds a master’s degree in English Literature from Michigan State University.
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