On April 13, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) signed legislation requiring the state to rejoin the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). Virginia was previously an ERIC member but withdrew from the organization in 2023, under former Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R).
Senate Bill 57 requires the state commissioner of elections to apply to rejoin ERIC and take all necessary steps to maintain the state’s membership in good standing. The law takes effect on July 1.
On March 24, Spanberger also issued an executive order directing the state to rejoin ERIC.
“Virginia must lead the way by continuing to improve its election security processes to ensure all Virginia voters are able to successfully register to vote and cast their ballots,” Spanberger’s executive order said. “Virginia’s election administrators must have access to the best information. The nonprofit, nonpartisan Electronic Registration Information Center (“ERIC”) is a valuable tool to accurately maintain Virginia’s voter rolls.”
Legislators approved two similar bills requiring the state to rejoin ERIC in 2024, but Youngkin vetoed them.
Virginia is the second state in the last year to approve legislation requiring ERIC membership. New York enacted S 1356 in December, requiring the state to join ERIC by July 31.
According to its website, ERIC is a nonprofit organization of member-states that shares information like voter registration and motor vehicle registration records in order to assist in voter list maintenance.
States that join ERIC agree to share their voter registration data and licensing and identification data from motor vehicle departments every 60 days. ERIC then compiles this data and subsequently releases a series of list maintenance reports.
After states receive a list maintenance report, they must act on it and use the information for voter list maintenance purposes. ERIC also releases reports that identify eligible but unregistered voters in each member state.
Currently, 25 states, plus the District of Columbia, are members of ERIC. Virginia and New York will bring the number of ERIC members to 27.
ERIC’s membership was highest in 2022, with 33 participating states. In addition to Virginia, eight other states left ERIC between 2022 and 2023. The states that withdrew from ERIC had either Republican trifectas or divided governments at the time. Currently, all besides Virginia have Republican trifectas, and no other states have rejoined ERIC since leaving. Election officials in states that withdrew from ERIC cited concerns about protecting personal data, partisanship, and strategic disagreements as contributing factors to their respective resignations.
So far in 2026, legislators in 35 states have introduced or carried over 177 bills related to voter list maintenance. Ten of those bills, including Virginia’s SB 57, have been enacted.