Grand Canyon Times

The head of a Phoenix, Ariz.-based elections organization is raising questions about the appearance of three Arizona elections officials at a conference run by a “hard-core leftist”, after a federal elections official was criticized for speaking at a February 2023 event “organized by conservative groups.”

“Either election officials are free to attend events or they aren’t,” Gina Swoboda, executive director of the Voter Reference Foundation, told the Grand Canyon Times. “We cannot pick and choose which group is 'acceptable' based on partisan perceptions.”

The Grand Canyon Times reported last week that Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D), along with two additional Arizona elections officials, is scheduled to speak at an elections conference run by a lawyer who has been described as a “hard-core leftist” who “hates conservatives." 

The conference, called, “The Summit for American Democracy,” is being held this week in Washington, D.C., and is hosted by the Center for Election Innovation & Research (CEIR), which was founded by lawyer David Becker. 

Fontes will be joined at the summit by Maricopa County Director of Elections Reynaldo "Rey" Valenzuela, and Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates. 

In addition to founding CEIR, which received $50 million from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, Becker also is co-founder of the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC).

CEIR and ERIC have been criticized for having “partisan goals” and sharing voter data.

“The Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, was sold to states as a quick and easy way to update their voter rolls,” reported The Federalist in 2022. “Started in 2012 by far-left activist David Becker and the left-leaning Pew Charitable Trusts, the program is ostensibly run by the member states themselves. But as public records show, Democratic operatives are working overtime under the cover of ERIC to accomplish their partisan goals and drive Democratic voter turnout.”

Hayden Ludwig, the director of policy research for Restoration for America, wrote in a column last month that, “ERIC was supposedly designed to help states cull their lists of voters who’ve died, moved, or otherwise become ineligible.”

“Here’s the truth: ERIC was created to expand the nation’s voter rolls, not clean them,” wrote Ludwig. “Take it from ERIC founder and leftist elections lawyer David Becker, who bragged in 2018 that ‘[ERIC] is the single most effective voter registration drive in the history of the United States,’ responsible for adding, in ERIC states, ‘between five and six million [new voters] in just six years.’” 

In March 2023, Ludwig wrote in a blog post that, “Newly acquired public records reveal that there’s much more to the exact relationship between the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) and the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR) than meets the eye. Emails obtained by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (and archived here) show Rhode Island Elections Director Rob Rock ‘working with CEIR” “to facilitate the secure transfer of . . . ERIC member data’ to this private, third-party organization run by ERIC founder and ex-board member David Becker.”

Becker resigned by the ERIC board in March 2023, following the resignation of four states from ERIC in March alone. 

Ohio was one of those states, and Ohio Secretary of State Frank La Rose cited ERIC's "hyper-partisan allies" as a reason for his state's resignation from the program.

"I cannot justify the use of Ohio’s tax dollars for an organization that seems intent on rejecting meaningful accountability, publicly maligning my motives, and waging a relentless campaign of misinformation about this effort," wrote La Rose in a letter to Shane Hamlin, executive director of ERIC. "The conduct of ERIC and some of its hyper-partisan allies in recent weeks only heightens my suspicion and reinforces my decision."

Florida, Missouri, and West Virginia also resigned their memberships in March. Alabama and Louisiana resigned their memberships in January, with Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin citing "partisan concerns."

"The announcement comes amid concerns raised by citizens, government watchdog organizations and media reports about potential questionable funding sources and that possibly partisan actors may have access to ERIC network data for political purposes, potentially undermining voter confidence," said Ardoin in a press release.

CNN reported, "The controversy swirling around the group also prompted David Becker – a founder of ERIC – to announce this week that he was resigning his non-voting position on the group’s board after conservatives claimed his presence had injected partisanship in the group." 

The Texas legislature is also considering legislation to withdraw from ERIC.

Swoboda questioned why it’s “acceptable” for Fontes and Arizona elections officials to attend a conference run by the co-founder of both CEIR and ERIC, while the attendance by U.S. Election Assistance Commissioner Donald Palmer at an event "organized by conservative groups," was grounds to call for Palmer’s resignation.

Raw Story reported on April 15, 2023, “U.S. Election Assistance Commissioner (EAC) Donald Palmer, the former chief election official in Virginia, was a panelist at a February conference organized by conservative groups working to impose new voting restrictions, including the Heritage Foundation.'

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D), who also is scheduled to speak at the CEIR summit, told Raw Story that Palmer should “step down.”

“Election professionals across the spectrum are deeply disappointed that (a commissioner) of this federal agency abused the trust we placed in his ability to be professional and unbiased in supporting election administration,” Benson said in a statement. “His inappropriate and poor judgment calls into question his ability to continue in his role in the future.”

Amber McReynolds, the former elections director for the city of Denver and a member of the Board of Governors for the U.S. Postal Service told Raw Story that EAC “commissioners should be barred from partisan events.”

In light of these criticisms of Palmer, Swoboda questioned why it’s “acceptable” for Benson, Fontes, and two other Arizona elections officlals, to attend an event hosted by the founder of CEIR and ERIC.

"Palmer came under attack for attending a meeting hosted by organizations who are very public about their support for election integrity,” said Swoboda. “Here we have election officials attending a conference for CEIR, a group that has come under scrutiny for its work on voter registration data provided to it by ERIC.”

In addition to Fontes and Benson, the current secretaries of state from Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Oregon are also on the CEIR event agenda.

The CEIR event will be live-streamed, but the agenda on the event website does not list the times during which Fontes, Valenzuela, and Gates will speak.