evidence: In virtual meetings taking place over a year, right-wing activists and Republican legislators have stoked concern over a multistate coalition that Texas and more than 30 other states use to help clean voter rolls. The majority of their grievances — that it is run by left-wing voter registration activists and funded by billionaire George Soros, among other things — were pulled straight from a far-right conspiracy website and are baseless. [...] In addition to unfounded speculation about Soros, the fringe site has also claimed that ERIC shares people’s personal data with unauthorized third parties and that it is a leftist scheme to enroll ineligible voters. These claims have taken deep root, and former President Donald Trump openly celebrated the announcements of departing states this week. [...] Almost none of what the so-called "TAD Talks" participants say about ERIC is true. Rather than a Soros-funded group run by liberal activists, it is a nonprofit organization paid for and managed by the member states.