I think I cracked the code on why De Santis and other Repub governors are dropping

[Baitball Blogger]

out of the voting safety system that can expose voters who are voting in two or more states.

First let me point out that this system was originally approved by the usual conservative groups. Also, the FL Dept of State Office of Election Crimes and Security claimed that it helped identify HUNDREDS of voters who appeared to have voted in Florida and in another ERIC state. So why is De Santis deciding to opt out?

As usual, the explanation is sketchy when it comes to getting an answer from De Santis on why he is opposed to it. The two things that I heard are that he wants to protect voter information, and doesn't want it used for partisan purposes. This is why I find that sketchy: Way back in the nineties when I tried to help a P.A.C. group I learned that you had to be a member of a political organization in order to get sheets of information that list everyone's names, address and political information. Members of these organizations use it to do things like, go door to door to get signatures for petitions.

This is how it was back then, and this is how it probably is today. Information is available FOR political reasons. It's a given. So why is De Santis and other Republicans balking about what ERIC can expose?

My guess is, that when conservatives herald the idea of ERIC, they were expecting to find a lot of Democratic offenders. And, instead, what they uncovered was a large swath of determined and unethical Republican voting fraudsters. This would further erode the reputation of the Republican party, in general, since it's obvious that, by everything we've seen, they are a party of cheaters. And the results would show this difference quite effectively, which can and SHOULD be exploited by the Democratic party.

That's my take.

3 more Republican states announce they're leaving a key voting data partnership

The Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, is a multi-state partnership that experts across the political spectrum say is the only reliable, secure way for states to share voter registration data with each other.

snip

Just weeks ago, a January report from the Florida Department of State Office of Election Crimes and Security said it had "used data provided by ERIC to identify" hundreds of voters who appeared to have voted in Florida and in another ERIC member state in the same election.

https://www.npr.org/2023/03/06/1161374479/electronic-registration-information-center-eric-florida-missouri-west-virginia?fbclid=IwAR0EoYbBU6InWLp3YKToGJgmTPg0onRekETXTa1ZoRtQ3ptIR7jrdKzdNkc

[Diamond_Dog]

1. I think you're right.

The truth hurts.

[Irish_Dem]

2. The GOP can only win by cheating.

[SheltieLover]

6. Absolutely!

[Rebl2]

7. So true

[mac56]

13. They can't win a fair fight.

[Cracklin Charlie]

3. I think you cracked the code, too.

My dumb ass Republican state, Missouri, opted out last week.

My husband and I call it “gotta keep the feds from finding out”.

I think that’s why Ohio governor tried to keep the feds from going to the train accidents.

[TheRealNorth]

4. I think you are 100% correct

Republicans are gearing up to blatantly cheat in 2024.

[Applan]

5. I agree

Whenever I hear claims of people voting multiple times and dead people voting, it always seems to be implied that it is Democrats doing the cheating. I'm certain that the majority of those votes are from Republicans but the party is rarely mentioned.

[Baitball Blogger]

8. The Villages in Florida was home to 3-4 Republicans who voted illegally.

So, yes. I think it IS a Republican problem, and this is one of the issues where the Democrats should investigate and go on the offensive, to stop Republicans in their tracks before they continue that false meme about Democrats.

[live love laugh]

9. That's why Тяцмp got so many votes.

[Baitball Blogger]

10. LOL! That's probably why he's so mystified that the double voting didn't exceed

the votes that Biden got.

[live love laugh]

18. "All I need is 11,780 votes."

[yonder]

11. Nailed it. Easier to lie and point fingers than to shine a light.

[Joinfortmill]

12. Of course are.

[James48]

14. Every GOP accusation

Is actually an admission of criminal guilt.

Go look at ANY Republican talking point, and you will reveal a pattern of republicans doing exactly that criminal behavior.

[markodochartaigh]

15. Hmmm

"when conservatives herald the idea of ERIC, they were expecting to find a lot of Democratic offenders. And, instead, what they uncovered was a large swath of determined and unethical Republican voting fraudsters."

There have been an insignificant number of voters who actually voted fraudulently. I don't think that anyone who makes it to the office of governor actually believed that many fraudulent votes would be found. I don't think that most upper echelon Republicans drank their own kool-aid from this batch.

But the Republican leaders a) know that when they mislead their base, their base will never find their way back to the truth, and b) the leaders of the far right, which the Republicans have allowed to lead their party, find it useful to discredit US elections. This discrediting of elections seems to me to be a wedge that Democrats could drive into the Republican party. Far-right Republicans have gone far further than the usual gerrymandering, suppression, and disenfranchisement into actual tampering with elections. Also, there has been a public display of very high ranking Republicans who are refusing to question the validity of US elections.

[SledDriver]

16. Republicans can't win without cheating

[czarjak]

23. "If you're not cheating, you're not trying"...

Any means necessary. Just win. They mean it.

[bluedigger]

27. My drill sergeant told us that once.

It was all I could do to keep a straight face, as we were in formation, and he was serious. ☺

[hay rick]

17. ERIC has two important uses.

One is it flags voters who are registered in more than one state and the other is providing lists of unregistered voters to the state so that they can send them a voter registration information postcard.

I believe the current exodus of red states from ERIC is driven almost entirely by a recent iteration of the Soros conspiracy theory. Soros' Open Society Foundation has supported the Pew Charitable Trust, which in turn was involved in founding ERIC.

Bob's your uncle.

[Baitball Blogger]

19. Soros should sue for defamation.

[Hortensis]

21. "Right-wing conspiracies have a new target: a tool that fights actual voter fraud"

A link to this NPR article is in the OP article. It doesn't actually mention Soros, but of course.... I'm sure it would inevitably be targeted.

... On Jan. 20, the far-right blog The Gateway Pundit published the first of a number of articles about the program, falsely implying it is part of a left-wing election conspiracy.

Other Republican election officials told NPR the far-right misinformation campaign is reverberating in their states, too. "We have had a number of emails from some very ill-informed, uninformed or uneducated people," said Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, a Republican. ...

So why is this system being targeted then? Becker ... says it's because election deniers don't actually want voting to be more secure or efficient. ... They only care that their side wins. ...

Amusingly, the Gateway Pundit is pushing another that Soros endorses DeSantis for president. Maybe we'll get to see a crowd of MAGAs chase him into an elevator.

[NullTuples]

20. Crosscheck worked brilliantly for them in 2016

In a handful of "battleground" states where Republicans controlled the elections, the number of voters stricken from the rolls using Crosscheck were up to 30 times Trump's victory margin. Which prompted everything from bad press to lawsuits. I'm guessing that tool has played out its usefulness as a cheat for the GOP.

[lindysalsagal]

22. I assume you're correct.

[dlk]

24. The voter fraud being exposed is generally being committed by Republicans

This doesn’t fit Republicans chosen narrative so better to forfeit voting safety and integrity, and democracy dies dies a little more.

[Lonestarblue]

25. You may be right, but another possibility is that the ERIC database doesn't allow them to

manipulate voter registrations as easily as if they had their own system. We know that Republicans cheat, and they’ve been looking for ways to not register Democratic voters for years, as in Chris Kobach’s terrible ID check system that got voters with the same name kicked off voting rolls in several states. I suspect some data company is designing a system to enable Republican states to target specific voters, forcing them to cast provisional ballots, for example, that are never then counted on the suspicion of fraud. My brain is not Machiavellian enough to think of all the ways Republicans might use a system geared solely to electing themselves..

[LiberalFighter]

26. The Democratic Party should still be able to id fraud with their files.

[flying_wahini]

28. It would explain a lot about all the snowbirds in Arizona too.