Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has asked Attorney General Todd Blanche to investigate whether a group that contracts with states to manage election data improperly obtained and shared sensitive state motor vehicle records.
The letter also links the Electronic Registration Information Center, better known as ERIC, with data later provided to a nonprofit that received more than $70 million from Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan for the 2020 election.
In a Wednesday letter to Blanche, Mullin said the Department of Homeland Security had previously referred the matter to the Justice Department and urged the newly confirmed attorney general to review the potential violations of federal privacy law.
The secretary’s referral focuses on ERIC’s collection of state voter registration and motor vehicle data and the use of that information to identify people who were eligible to vote but had not registered, also referred to as “EBU.”
Mullin said the Department of Homeland Security had flagged potential violations of the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, a federal law governing the disclosure and use of personal information maintained by state motor vehicle agencies.
“ERIC exposes millions of citizens’ sensitive private data to unknown contractors, subcontractors, and agents of ERIC, potentially in violation of the DPPA,” Mullin wrote.
TRENDING ARTICLES
ERIC describes itself as a membership organization created and governed by state election officials.
Mullin also noted that ERIC’s 2022 eligible but unregistered voter list in Colorado included 30,000 noncitizens.
“These 30,000 non-citizens received invitations to register from the Colorado Secretary of State,” Mullin wrote.
The organization’s model contract requires participating states to provide “all licensing or identification records from motor vehicles departments” at least every 60 days, Mullin’s letter says.
Mullin said the information can include Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers.
The contract states: “Under no circumstances shall the member transmit an individual’s record where the record contains documentation or other information indicating that the individual is a non-citizen of the United States.”
Mullin adds that ERIC can use the states’ DMV information to identify people to contact about registering to vote, while also restricting the transmission of information that would indicate whether those same individuals are noncitizens.
The secretary also questioned whether the federal privacy law’s exceptions for government functions and research apply to ERIC’s activities.
Under one provision of the Driver Protection Privacy Act, Mullin said, private motor vehicle information may be disclosed for research, but the information cannot be published, redisclosed, or used to contact individuals.
He cited Georgia emails obtained through a public records request that showed the Center for Election Innovation and Research was “coordinating ERIC EBU outreach” to contact people identified through motor vehicle records.
The letter also draws a direct connection between ERIC and the Center for Election Innovation and Research, a nonprofit founded by David Becker.
Before founding the Center for Election Innovation and Research, Becker was involved in the founding of ERIC. The Center for Election Innovation and Research says it received funding from Zuckerberg and Chan in 2020 to help states provide voting information during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mullin says the connection goes beyond Becker.
“Prior to the 2020 election, ERIC shared that sensitive, protected motor vehicle data with at least one other private organization,” he wrote.
That organization was the Center for Election Innovation and Research, which Mullin said “received over $70 million from the Chan Zuckerberg 501(c)(3) organization.”
The Center for Election Innovation and Research says Chan and Zuckerberg provided nearly $65 million through their 2020 Voter Education Grant Program, which distributed grants to states for voter education and information about voting options, polling places, and voting hours. The Center for Election Innovation and Research said the money was used for nonpartisan voter education.
The private funding became a major political controversy after the 2020 election, with critics referring to the grants as “Zuckerbucks.”
Mullin’s letter raises a different question: whether protected state motor vehicle information was subsequently shared with a privately funded nonprofit and used to contact prospective voters.
“In 2020, Pennsylvania’s $13 million grant agreement from CEIR included” a requirement that the state cooperate with the center, “including providing data, as CEIR reasonably requests,” Mullin wrote.
According to Mullin, the requested data included state motor vehicle information that had originally been shared with ERIC and was then used by the Center for Election Innovation and Research to create EBU lists for voter registration outreach.
“ERIC acknowledges that the EBU list is created using data that is protected by the DPPA,” Mullin wrote.
Mullin also noted that ERIC’s 2022 eligible but unregistered voter list in Colorado included 30,000 noncitizens.
“These 30,000 non-citizens received invitations to register from the Colorado Secretary of State,” Mullin wrote.
Read the first chapter of The Woketopus right now for FREE
Today, even with President Trump’s victory, leftist elites have their tentacles in every aspect of our government.
The Daily Signal’s own Tyler O’Neil exposes this leftist cabal in his new book, The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.
In this book, O’Neil reveals how the Left’s NGO apparatus pursues its woke agenda, maneuvering like an octopus by circumventing Congress and entrenching its interests in the federal government.
You can read the first chapter of this new book for FREE in this eBook, The Woketopus: Chapter One using the secure link below.
TRENDING ARTICLES
The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you.
RELATED ARTICLES
Don’t miss the
Don’t miss the signal
