evidence: "We need to get out of ERIC, a system that’s funded by George Soros," Finchem said Oct. 9 at an event also attended by former President Donald Trump to rally for Arizona Republicans running for office. [...] Republicans running for secretary of state in Nevada and Michigan have also falsely claimed ERIC is backed by Soros. One of America First’s platforms is to enact "aggressive voter roll cleanup." Their stance against ERIC ignores that its purpose is to help states do a better job at cleaning up voter rolls. We contacted Finchem through his campaign website and did not get a response. [...] The falsehood that ERIC is funded by Soros appears to have originated with stories by the conservative website The Gateway Pundit in January. One of those stories pointed to a document showing a Soros organization gave money to the Pew Charitable Trusts, but the document says the funding was for "voting rights" — not for ERIC.