W.Va. Leaves One Multi-State Election Group, Joins Another

Secretary of State Mac Warner announced Friday that election data-sharing agreements have been made with Ohio, Virginia and Florida and the state is nearing an agreement with Tennessee. In a press release, Warner said the partnerships will help keep elections fair.

“The agreements set forth general terms to securely share data between states for the purpose of preventing and identifying fraud and form a foundation for future state partnerships ahead of, and after, the 2024 election cycle,” Warner said.

The release calls the data sharing system free of partisanship and outside influence. Earlier this year, Warner pulled West Virginia out of the 30-plus state member Electronic Registration Information Center, a non-partisan data sharing group, better known as ERIC.  

Warner said in the release that West Virginia’s surrounding states make up the majority of identified duplicate registrations.

“The states that have signed agreements account for nearly 50 percent of all abandoned registrations since 2017,” Warner said. “This regional foundation forms the beginning of onboarding other states interested in identifying and prosecuting fraud.”

WVPB reached out to the Secretary of State’s office for comment on the difference between the two data-sharing groups. As of publication time we had received no response.