Tens of millions of Americans may have had their Social Security numbers and driver’s license information handed over to private organizations through a voter roll maintenance group with deep ties to Democrat-aligned nonprofits.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has asked Attorney General Todd Blanche to open an investigation into the Electronic Registration Information Center, known as ERIC, over whether it illegally obtained and shared personal data from state motor vehicle databases.
The scope is staggering. Administration officials believe at least nine states engaged in grant agreements authorizing the transfer of this sensitive data, and those states alone have over 48 million registered voters. But the actual number of affected individuals could be far higher since motor vehicle databases include people who never registered to vote.
“Marketed as a voter list maintenance organization, ERIC exposes millions of citizens’ sensitive private data to unknown contractors, subcontractors, and agents of ERIC, potentially in violation of the DPPA,” Mullin wrote in his letter to Blanche, and obtained by The Federalist, referring to the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act.
ERIC presents itself as a tool to help states keep their voter rolls clean and accurate. The reality, according to Mullin, looks very different.
The organization’s contract language actually prohibits states from transmitting records that indicate an individual is a non-citizen. “Under no circumstances shall the Member transmit an individual’s record where the record contains documentation or other information indicating that the individual is a non-citizen of the United States,” the model contract states.
That provision has real consequences. In Colorado in 2022, ERIC’s list of eligible but unregistered voters contained 30,000 non-citizens, all of whom received invitations to register to vote.
“This problem has direct implications for our efforts to prevent alien voting,” Mullin stated. “We have serious concerns about the potential for alien registration across other states.”
The money trail leads to familiar names. Mullin’s letter details ERIC’s connections to the Center for Election Innovation and Research, which received $70 million from the Chan Zuckerberg nonprofit for the 2020 election. That money “was used to provide grants to state election officials who agreed to turn over sensitive private data to CEIR,” according to the letter.
The data gets used to identify eligible but unregistered voters, who then become targets of registration campaigns. “This category of data regarding potential voters is incredibly valuable to political parties and campaigns,” Mullin wrote.
A February 2026 incident in Washington state illustrated the problem. A resident discovered hundreds of ballots next to a dumpster at a commercial mailbox rental business. At the same address, 550 postcards encouraging voter registration had been sent from the Washington Secretary of State to eligible but unregistered voters.
“In my view, this mass mailing of voter registration material to unvetted addresses is another indicator of the reckless use of DPPA-protected motor vehicle data that could potentially result in alien voter registration and alien voting,” Mullin wrote.
DHS flagged potential violations of the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, which regulates how personal information from motor vehicle records can be disclosed and used.
For an organization that claims to help states maintain accurate voter rolls, ERIC’s actual practices seem designed to do the opposite: blocking identification of non-citizens while harvesting personal data for targeted political outreach.
