The NPR Politics Podcast

How A Beloved Anti-Voter Fraud Tool Fell Victim To Conspiracies

Jun 4, 2023

Miles Parks, NPR's Voting Correspondent, dives deep into the rise and fall of the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a tool that once enjoyed bipartisan support for maintaining voter roll integrity. He reveals how conspiratorial narratives, particularly from the far-right, led to significant political pressure to dismantle ERIC. The conversation highlights the impact of misinformation on state withdrawal from ERIC and the broader implications for election integrity across the U.S. Parks provides a gripping look into the intersection of politics, technology, and conspiracy.

37:33

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Miles Parks

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Episode notes

Intro

3min

The Decline of ERIC and Voter Registration Challenges

6min

The Fallout of Conspiracy Theories on Voter Roll Integrity

5min

Conspiracies and Election Policies

4min

Controversies of ERIC: Misinformation and Election Integrity

9min

Controversies Surrounding ERIC: Election Integrity at Stake

13min

Navigating the Complexities of Election Integrity and Conspiracy Theories

2min

A rare bipartisan success story, the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, quietly helped to clean up voter rolls and catch fraud for nearly a decade — until it became the target of the far-right and a Trump allied lawyer.

NPR Voting Correspondent Miles Parks and NPR's Investigations Team traced the secret meetings and grassroots pressure to dismantle an obscure elections tool — giving the election denial movement its biggest policy victory yet.

To read the investigation, head here.

This episode: voting reporter Miles Parks.

This episode was produced by by Monika Evstatieva and edited by Ben Swasey and Barrie Hardymon. Data reporting by Nick McMillan. Fact checking by Barbara Van Woerkom. Audio engineering by James Willetts.

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