NPR: How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud

[DBoon]

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/04/1171159008/eric-investigation-voter-data-election-integrity

The organization[ERIC] is a nonprofit voting partnership — completely voluntary — that allows member states an efficient way to share data to keep their voter rolls more up-to-date. It lets local election officials know when their voters move, die or illegally vote in more than one state in the same election.
...

But in January 2022, the tool drew the ire of one of the most prolific misinformation peddlers on the internet: a website called the Gateway Pundit.

The right-wing website is known for pushing conspiracy theories, including the so-called birther theory about former President Barack Obama, and that survivors of the Parkland shooting in Florida were crisis actors. More recently, it published an article implying COVID vaccines were 98 times worse for people than the virus itself.

About a week before Louisiana's Ardoin made his reference to "media reports," the Gateway Pundit began targeting ERIC. The website published a series of articles that falsely said the bipartisan partnership was a "left wing voter registration drive," bankrolled by billionaire George Soros, aimed at helping Democrats win elections.

It's become clear the site ignited the election denial movement's fixation on ERIC.

[onecaliberal]

1. They want to commit voter fraud and not get caught. They can't win in a legit election.

[2naSalit]

2. Yup.

[LoisB]

3. Exactly!

[dawg]

4. I wouldn't be surprised to find that lots of Northern snowbirds are voting in Florida ...

even though they are only there a few months out of the year.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. It is hard to catch or prosecute people who vote in multiple states

Most of the people caught voting twice in different states are repbulicans

Link to tweet

?s=20

[SharonAnn]

6. The tool was used as evidence that Republicans were voting fraudulently.

So, get rid of the evidence that Republicans are voting in more than one state.