DALLAS COUNTY, Texas — Now that Republican leaders in the state of Texas have formally started the process to leave a multistate effort designed to catch duplicate voter registrations, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said he’s not very confident that voter rolls will be clean before the 2024 primary next March.
“We should be focused on winning over the hearts and minds of new voters, not what the Republicans are doing, which is artificially keeping the voter rolls low so they can win with the same group that they’ve had and not allow the younger, the new transplants, renters who move, to easily register,” Judge Jenkins said on Inside Texas Politics.
The partnership is known as ERIC, the Electronic Registration Information Center.
As many as 27 states had been using the system, which is designed to check for voters who’ve registered in two different states and may try to vote twice in the same election. ERIC also helps to keep voter rolls clean, alerting elections officials when someone moves, for instance.
At least three Republican-led states have already exited ERIC.
And the Secretary of State says Texas will leave the program in three months.
According to state law passed during the last legislative session, Texas must now either create its own system or find a provider from the private sector, but it can’t cost more than $100,000.
Jenkins says ERIC was extremely effective at keeping rolls clean and he doubts the new program created by Texas Republicans will do the same, instead harming some voters.
“It’s a big deal. We’ll have to see what happens with the state’s new system, but it will, in all likelihood, disenfranchise people and knock people off the voter rolls,” Jenkins said. “And the ones to watch for are young people, minorities and renters who move around.”