As his first official act in office, Alabama’s Secretary of State Wes Allen has officially withdrawn the state from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), keeping a promise he made on the campaign trail.
“I made a promise to the people of Alabama that ending our state’s relationship with the ERIC organization would be my first official act as secretary of state,” Allen said in a news release. “I came into the office after being sworn in yesterday and signed the letter to ERIC notifying them that Alabama is no longer a participant in any of their programs.
“The relationship between Alabama and ERIC is officially over.”
ERIC is a nonprofit organization that assists its members in maintaining accurate voter rolls by reviewing data provided by the states. Before Monday, Alabama was one of 33 states and the District of Columbia that were members of the voting system.
Allen reiterated concerns about the ERIC organization having access to Alabamians’ private information, including driver’s license numbers, contact information and partial Social Security numbers of minors.
“Providing the private information of Alabama citizens, including underage minors, to an out of state organization is troubling to me and to people that I heard from as I traveled the state for the last 20 months,” he said. “That is no longer a concern because the data uploads of that information from Alabama to ERIC is over.”
Allen originally made the promise during his campaign, telling Yellowhammer News it was a “Democrat-controlled database.”
“We should not be providing any information to this Democrat-controlled database but we absolutely should never give the personal information of minors to these people,” he said. “There is no justification for any state’s involvement in ERIC but the minute I become secretary of state, Alabama will be out of it for good.”
Allen took the oath of office Monday as Alabama’s 54th secretary of state.
As of November 2022, the other ERIC members were Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
