evidence: The number of states leaving the Electronic Registration Information Center — used to maintain up-to-date voter rolls — has risen as conservative leaders bow to false allegations from right-wing conspiracy theorists. In 2022 and 2023, several Republican-led states withdrew from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a bipartisan data-sharing consortium used by dozens of states and the District of Columbia to keep voter rolls up to date. The withdrawals were spurred by conspiracy theories about ERIC circulated by and among far-right activists and so-called "election integrity" groups beholden to former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged. [...] The misinformation campaign can be traced to a January 2022 article on the right-wing conspiracy website Gateway Pundit that was laden with false information about ERIC’s security and its purpose in maintaining accurate records, as well as bogus claims that the organization was funded by billionaire George Soros. (ERIC received start-up funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts and is funded by member-states that voluntarily entered the consortium; it also uses strict, regularly reviewed protocols to safely handle personal data.)