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Subcommittee clears bill to curb multi‑state voter‑maintenance participation, adds authority for state compacts
Summary
House Bill 215 would bar Georgia participation in certain multi‑state voter‑list maintenance organizations such as ERIC and restrict data sharing with nongovernmental entities. After extended testimony for and against, the committee adopted an amendment allowing the secretary of state to enter state‑to‑state voter‑maintenance compacts and approved
Representative (sponsor) presented House Bill 215 to regulate the state’s participation in multi‑state voter‑list maintenance organizations and to restrict sharing of voter registration data with nongovernmental entities.
The sponsor described the bill as a response to changes in multi‑state partnerships that, he said, have reduced the effectiveness of those networks. The draft would prohibit the secretary of state, state agencies and local election officials from joining or participating in multi‑state voter‑list maintenance organizations and would require the state to terminate participation in prohibited organizations within 90 days of the bill’s effective date. The bill also would limit sharing of voter registration information to authorized government agencies and preserve certain voter registration documents from public disclosure.
Witnesses presented sharply divergent views. Blake Evans and Zach LaRoche of the Secretary of State’s office told the committee ERIC has been a central, efficient tool for list maintenance: they said Georgia has used ERIC since 2020, that ERIC provides cross‑state matching that would be slow and staff‑intensive to replicate state‑by‑state, and that ERIC helped produce a large cancellation mailing this cycle. Evans provided a dues figure for Georgia’s ERIC membership of $97,969 and said ERIC enabled the state to refer 74 potential illegal‑voting cases to law enforcement in recent cycles.
Opponents of ERIC, including representatives of advocacy groups and independent election‑integrity organizations, raised privacy and data‑control concerns, cited states that have left ERIC, and urged state‑based or alternative approaches. Several speakers recommended state‑to‑state compacts or other vendors that they said do not require the same profile of personally identifying information.
Representative Fleming offered an amendment (AM 470134) that authorizes the secretary of state to enter voter‑list maintenance compacts with other states, to share driver‑license data as needed for those compacts and to withdraw from compacts at the secretary’s discretion. The committee adopted Fleming’s amendment; after further discussion the subcommittee voted to pass HB 215 as amended. The committee instructed staff to provide conforming drafting changes and indicated the bill will be scheduled for full committee.
