evidence: According to its annual report for 2017, "[t]he Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) is a non-profit organization with the sole mission of assisting states to improve the accuracy of America’s voter rolls and increase access to voter registration for all eligible citizens."REF These are laudable and important goals, but credible claims of bias, lack of transparency, and misplaced focus in the organization’s administration, as well as questions about how the organization uses and shares its data and whether some of its requirements violate federal law, are just some of the reasons why several states recently withdrew from membership in ERIC. [...] ERIC was started as a project of the Pew Charitable Trusts. According to research conducted by the Capital Research Center, funding was also provided by "two grants to Pew in 2011 totaling $725,000" from George Soros’s Foundation to Promote Open Society.REF The key Pew staffer behind the formation of ERIC was David Becker, "a former Justice Department trial attorney who earned a reputation as a ‘hardcore leftist’ who ‘couldn’t stand conservatives.’"REF Becker formerly worked for People for the American Way, an organization that opposes voter identification requirements and other commonsense election reforms.REF