Republican states swore off a voting tool. Now they're scrambling to recreate it

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

57% : Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen speaks during his inauguration on Jan. 16, 2023, in Montgomery, Ala.
56% : "We currently manage 1.7 billion voter records, that we believe is the largest such system in existence," wrote Valentine, in a pitch email for Fractal to Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson on May 23, the same day the Texas House passed a bill that cleared the way for the state to pull out of ERIC.
54% : Last month, Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen stood at a podium at the state capitol in Montgomery and announced what he called a novel way for his state to keep its voter lists up to date.
54% : "I think that probably we could get some of the secretaries of state who have withdrawn from ERIC to take a look at this," said Mitchell of EagleAI in March, following a demonstration of the software to a local election integrity group.
53% : "This is a major new development as states look to move beyond the old model of sharing voter data through an unaccountable third-party vendor," said Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, as he announced partnerships with Virginia, West Virginia and Florida.
53% : "And if we find a first, middle, last name and date of birth that matches between us and another state -- that somebody with those first, middle and last name and date of birth voted in both states -- then that gives us then the ability to launch a more detailed, hands-on, less automated investigation.
52% : But voter registration lists alone don't generally have enough unique identifiable information to confidently say a voter in one state is the same as one in another state.
51% : "Around the same time Alabama's Allen announced AVID, a number of other Republican secretaries of state announced new data-sharing agreements as well -- with some even taking veiled shots at ERIC in the process.
49% : One of the reasons ERIC took so long to develop and roll out is because getting state DMVs on board to share that data is complicated by specific privacy laws.
47% : "I can't see a case in which the state-by-state agreements that don't involve the sharing of confidential information ... can be more accurate than ERIC.
46% : But records reviewed by NPR indicate that recent data-sharing agreements touted by Allen, whose office did not respond to an interview request, as well as other Republican secretaries of state may lack enough detail to yield reliable results.
42% : He and a number of other Republican secretaries of state abandoned the group earlier this year after the far right began targeting the organization with conspiracy theories.
42% : "I'm not skeptical that they will fail; I know they will fail," said Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat and a former local election official.
35% : And West Virginia, another former ERIC state, confirmed to NPR that its "primary focus with the [partnerships] is on the fraud component," according to Mike Queen, deputy chief of staff for Secretary of State Mac Warner.

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