Is Missouri missing an important election integrity tool? Some local election officials think so

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (First Alert 4) – With just weeks until voters go to the polls, some Republicans and Democrats are lamenting the loss of what they called a crucial tool to protect the integrity of our elections.

Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft withdrew Missouri from a program designed to help keep voter rolls clean.

“Frankly, it is paramount to ensure that the integrity of the election is maintained at all stages of the process,” said Eric Fey, Democratic election director in St. Louis County. He said they have 10 people dedicated to cleaning up the voter rolls.

“Every minute of every workday we are constantly receiving new registrations, address changes, name changes,” Fey said.

Among their methods, Fey said, was a program called ERIC, the Electronic Registration Information Center, a nonprofit consortium that included more than 30 states at its peak. The program used software to cross-reference voter rolls. Fey said that’s how they found out that three people who voted in St. Louis County in 2020 also voted in other states. This information was forwarded to the FBI.

“Occasionally it can happen, and if we don’t have a tool to prevent it, there’s not much we can do,” Fey said.

But that tool is now gone. Ashcroft withdrew Missouri from the consortium last year, the same day that former President Donald Trump called on states on Truth Social to “immediately withdraw from ERIC.”

Right-wing extremist conservatives recently criticized the program. Missouri-based The Gateway Pundit claimed it was funded by George Soros, a claim disputed by ERIC officials.

When Ashcroft withdrew for several reasons, a nonpartisan coalition of county officials said ERIC helped them “assure voters that dead voters have been removed, our voter rolls are being actively cleaned, and our elections are being conducted responsibly.”

“Will it be harder this time to know whether the same person voted in multiple states?” Fey asked. “Yeah. I mean, I can’t put it any other way. It can happen.”

“To be honest, I don’t think it was a good idea,” said Rick Stream, Republican elections director in St. Louis County. He shares Fey’s disappointment and says it was an excellent tool for removing ineligible people from the list.

“Without this tool, we simply don’t know. We just won’t know,” Stream said.

Even Republican counterpart Scott Fitzpatrick, comptroller, wrote a report and wrote:

“The decision to terminate ERIC membership will negatively impact the state’s local election authorities and result in them having less information to identify and correct inaccurate voter rolls.”

Fitzpatrick said Ashcroft failed to fully evaluate the benefits received.

Ashcroft defended his decision to leave ERIC in a lengthy interview, reiterating concerns in a letter he sent last year. He claimed there was a highly partisan figure on the board and cited the limited benefits to Missouri because only three neighboring states are ERIC members.

“It really didn’t live up to what we were promised and it cost the people of the state money. I am a fiscal conservative. I’m a small government guy. If I don’t have to spend the money, I won’t.”

Asked what he would say to people who argue that leaving ERIC will affect election integrity, Ashcroft replied: “Show me the evidence. We are getting better data and making it available to local election authorities than under ERIC.”

First Alert 4: Examines verified public records. St. Louis County, St. Louis City and St. Charles County all reported fewer people disqualified or removed from the voter rolls so far this year than the average over the past four years.

In St. Louis County, officials removed more than 36,000 people from the voter rolls the year Missouri left ERIC. So far this year, that number is closer to just 7,000. Officials attribute the decline to the normalization of mortality rates after COVID-19 and the withdrawal from the ERIC.

Asked how election officials now know whether someone voted in Missouri or another state, Ashcroft said, “They wouldn’t necessarily know that under ERIC either.”

Ashcroft continues to insist that they continue to provide reports to help counties clean up their lists.

Now, as Ashcroft prepares to leave office, he says other things could help more than ERIC.

“Are we light years further than we were eight years ago? Yes. Are we ahead of where we were four years ago? Yes. But there are things we can continue to do to get better.”

Asked if he was sure only eligible voters were voting, Ashcroft said: “I think so. I think so.”

Election authorities tell us they will continue to use other tools, such as the U.S. Postal Service’s National Change of Address database, to ensure election integrity.

“It doesn’t matter who you vote for, just vote,” said Lisa, a local voter. “I have hope. Your vote and my vote are the backbone of our democracy.”

First Alert 4 Investigates interviewed auditor Fitzpatrick about Ashcroft’s claim that he lied. The auditor submitted a statement:

“As an auditor, I deal with facts. The Secretary of State’s Office audit report released earlier this year did not state whether leaving ERIC was a good decision, but highlighted that Secretary Ashcroft had no plan to replace the information provided by ERIC at the time of his departure. The data shows that in the five years that Missouri was a member of the ERIC, information on over 770,000 potentially duplicate voter registration records and over 21,000 defunct voter registration records was provided to local election authorities. Missouri’s local election officials have lost an essential tool for keeping elections safe, accurate and efficient (their words, not mine). “Missouri fell from 3rd to 7th on the Heritage Foundation’s Election Integrity Scorecard.”

At the same time as Missouri, Florida and West Virginia also left ERIC.

ERIC officials declined to comment for this story.

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