The Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, is a multi-state partnership that experts say is the only reliable, secure way for states to share voter registration data with each other. Apparently it was a little too successful! Via NPR:

But on Monday, three Republican-led states announced they are pulling out of ERIC — leaving questions about the future of a system that up until recently was a bipartisan success story, as well as questions about how these three states will maintain accurate voter lists without such a resource.

"[ERIC] is a godsend," Paul Pate, the GOP secretary of state of Iowa, told NPR in an interview last month.

But state officials in Florida, Missouri and West Virginia have joined a growing number of Republicans who don't see it that way.

The states announced in tandem Monday that they were beginning the process to pull out, after weeks of tense negotiations over potential changes the organization could make to appease GOP members who have been facing constituent pressure about ERIC, in part due to a sustained misinformation campaign from the far-right.

Yes, it's the usual conspiracy theories. The first wingnut attack on the system was from the Gateway Pundit -- aka Jim Holt, the Stupidest Man On The Internet. He claimed George Soros was using it to steal elections.

Then whack job Cleta Mitchell, the Ginni Thomas pal, started attacking it on her podcast, and it rolled on from there. So now more Republican-led states are talking about pulling out of ERIC.

But election officials from across the political spectrum have told NPR that it is essentially impossible to replicate what ERIC does, and Alabama and Louisiana will now just have less up-to-date voter records.

Maybe, just maybe it's a cover story for them finding so many cases of election fraud committed by ... Republicans. Just sayin'!