‘Transparency and interagency collaboration are essential to ensuring that every eligible Virginian can … vote and know that the list of registered voters is accurate and up to date.’
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order on Friday requiring state agencies to establish data-sharing protocols for keeping the commonwealth’s voter rolls updated and accurate.
“The interagency exchange of data is a vital component of election administration in the Commonwealth,” Youngkin wrote. “Transparency and interagency collaboration are essential to ensuring that every eligible Virginian can exercise their right to vote and know that the list of registered voters is accurate and up to date.”
Under Executive Order 31, the Virginia State Police and respective Departments of Elections, Health, and Motor Vehicles are required to “update data sharing agreements between those agencies within 90 days” of the order’s effective date that “indicate the applicable state or federal law that permits the sharing of Commonwealth data, the designated contact for each agency, and any other responsibility to ensure the accuracy, reliability, privacy, and efficiency of the data used for list maintenance.” Once updated, these agreements will be reviewed once every year, according to the directive.
The order additionally instructs various state departments to develop a multi-agency “data review work group,” which will analyze and issue guidance on the accuracy and security of data given to and used by the Department of Elections for maintaining the state’s Voter Election Registration Information System. These agencies may also collaborate with “other stakeholders” on the working group if and when “deemed necessary.”
“This effort shall develop comprehensive best practices across agencies and offer recommendations that make necessary and effective changes to the Commonwealth’s list maintenance processes,” the order reads. “The work group shall review and verify the accuracy and source of data inputs provided and ensure all data provided meets applicable state and federal requirements.”
Youngkin further directed the Department of Elections to devise specific data sharing standards “for the source, transmission, and receipt of information” given to each agency that regularly circulates voter roll data. He also instructed the department to adopt data-sharing agreements with other states to “identify duplicate registrations, voters who no longer reside in the Commonwealth, and other persons who are no longer entitled to be registered.”
A New Era for Virginia Voter Rolls
As noted in the order, the aforementioned directives are aimed at enhancing the accuracy of Virginia’s voter data before the launch of a new statewide voter list maintenance program next year.
The development of the new system comes amid the commonwealth’s departure from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a widely used voter-roll management organization founded by Democrat activist David Becker that was “sold to states as a quick and easy way to update their voter rolls.” In actuality, ERIC inflates voter rolls by requiring member states to contact eligible but unregistered residents to register to vote.
In her May 2023 letter to ERIC, Virginia Elections Commissioner Susan Beals informed the organization that the state would no longer participate in the program, citing concerns about the “confidentiality of voter information” and “controversy surrounding the historical sharing of data with outside organizations leveraged for political purposes.” The announcement came weeks after state officials discovered nearly 19,000 dead registrants on Virginia’s voter lists.
Other states to withdraw from the program in recent years over similar concerns include Ohio, Florida, West Virginia, Missouri, Texas, Iowa, Alabama, and Louisiana.