The Right Is Implementing a Divorce Piece by Piece

David Bernell

 

There is an organization that flies under the radar of American politics, the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). A bipartisan success since 2012 when it was established, ERIC now serves as another example of the partisan polarization spreading to all parts of American politics.

 

ERIC is a data-sharing consortium among states that keeps voter rolls updated and protects against fraud. The members of ERIC – 34 of them in 2022 – share information on voter registration rolls, and ERIC provides reports so members can remove voters who have moved away or died, as well as identify people who have voted more than once in the same election. In addition, member states are required to encourage eligible, unregistered voters to register to vote.

 

Now a number of red states are withdrawing from this multistate consortium: Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, West Virginia and Missouri. Critics on the right began targeting the group after the 2020 election. They have claimed that ERIC has become a partisan organization, that it is a left-wing operation that adds to Democratic voter rolls and shares voter information with liberal groups. ERIC’s defenders point out that the organization has actually helped to prevent the very fraud that the GOP and conservatives say they’re trying to stop.

 

I don’t know much about ERIC, and my sense is that having states withdraw from ERIC isn’t a huge thing in and of itself. The organization seems to help ensure election integrity, it’s cost effective, and losing it could make fraud easier. But losing ERIC and its services in red states probably won’t wreck future elections. ERIC has only been around since 2012. We got along without it before. 

 

Instead, I think the major takeaway from the emerging red-state departure from ERIC is that this is one of many current examples in which MAGA-oriented politicians and voters in red states controlled by Republicans are seeking to withdraw or opt-out of institutions they cannot control, and take over or remake institutions they can control. 

 

Florida represents the most significant example of this at the moment, in which politicians on the right are targeting state-controlled institutions and laws involving education (subjects that cannot be taught, books that cannot be used, school boards, educational standards, governance of universities), voting (deciding who can vote, who administers elections, and who determines winners), and sexuality (unequal treatment for gay people, and what can only be called outright hatred and marginalization of transgender people). These areas involve institutions that had previously been considered largely non-partisan (secretary of state offices, election boards, school boards, civil rights enforcement), but they are increasingly considered suspect if they are not controlled directly by MAGA conservatives. 

 

With regard to institutions they cannot control, the same MAGA conservatives are cutting ties, accusing them of being controlled by liberals and/or the deep state. This has been true for media for a long time, with the creation of Fox News and now numerous news outlets on the right. The issue with ERIC is a new thing, but it’s part of the same pattern of action.

 

Moreover, when they can, MAGA conservatives are targeting federal laws. They are trying to weaken protections and laws for civil rights, voting, the environment, and reproductive rights, not only in red states, but in blue states too, often via the courts, but also with regulation during the Trump Administration. The latest example of this has to do with the concern that a single Trump-appointed judge in Texas might cause a nationwide halt to the availability of a pill that can induce abortion. 

 

What’s going on here is that the MAGA movement seems to be trying to implement some version of the divorce that Marjorie Taylor Greene recently called for. Politicians and voters are seeking to make red states fundamentally different in how they are governed, in order to ensure the continued dominance of MAGA and GOP rule in those places. They are also trying to diminish federal reach into red states, and if possible, even undercut policies that are supported in blue states.

 

The MAGA movement and the GOP are going on the offensive in a way they haven’t done before, and they have been pretty successful in many places. The Democrats and those on the left are on the defensive. They’re hoping that an electoral majority will save them, but they’re going to have to get organized if they want this to happen. The right is highly motivated, and they’re notching a few wins and building their strength.