The Alabama House passed a bill Tuesday to remove the Electronic Registration Information Center, a nonprofit organization that operates a national voter system, as an allowable voter registration database for identifying voter address changes.
The effort to fully withdraw from ERIC and its voter system was a campaign pledge of Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen, who had asked Rep. Bryan Brinyark, R-Fayette, to carry a bill on his behalf.
“When the current secretary of state came into office in 2023, Alabama participated in the Electronic Registration Information Center to provide voter information in its database,” Brinyark said on the House floor, introducing his bill. “The purpose is to identify voters whose addresses have changed so that we can have accurate voting rolls. This bill removes ERIC as the database that we use.”
A number of House Democrats introduced amendments to the bill, including Rep. Kenyatte Hassell, D-Montgomery, whose amendment that would prohibit the use of artificial intelligence when determining address changes. Hassell’s amendment, along with every other proposed amendment, were tabled at the request of Brinyark.
The bill ultimately passed with a vote of 74-28, largely along party lines. The bill now heads to the Senate.