Republican secretary of state's first act in office: withdrawing Alabama from voter-registration org

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama’s new secretary of state has announced the state’s withdrawal from a 32-state voter-registration partnership, a data-sharing effort that was designed to maintain accurate voter rolls but has sometimes become the target of right-wing ire and conspiracy theories.

A day after being sworn in on Jan. 17, Secretary of State Wes Allen sent a letter to the Electronic Registration Information Center, a nonprofit linking 32 states and the District of Columbia, saying the state will no longer participate in the sharing of voter registration data.

“I made a promise to the people of Alabama that ending our state’s relationship with the ERIC organization would be my first official act as Secretary of State,” Allen said in a statement. The letter said that Alabama would immediately cease transmitting data.

The Republican, who had pledged during his campaign to withdraw from ERIC, cited privacy concerns for the decision.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/republican-secretary-of-state-s-first-act-in-office-withdrawing-alabama-from-voter-registration-organization/ar-AA16Qacv