Republicans generated headlines recently by declaring that "Interstate Crosscheck", a controversial voter data checking program run by conservative activist and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, had discovered massive voter fraud in NC's last election. Of course, it was all a bunch of bunk.

It turns out that two states - Florida and Oregon - left the program just about the time that the TeaBagger Republicans in the NC state legislature and Board of Elections signed us up. Oregon signed up to participate in ERIC instead, citing concerns over data from Interstate Crosscheck that was "unreliable".

ERIC stands for the Electronic Registration Information Center, a project started by the Pew Charitable Trusts that now includes nine states (Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Virginia and Washington) and Washington, D.C.

The ERIC project hasn't generated as much publicity or controversy. But interestingly, in December 2013 -- the same month that North Carolina election officials were joining Kobach's Crosscheck program -- RTI International in North Carolina released a report [pdf] highlighting ERIC's success.

In evaluating ERIC's first year, RTI International, formerly known as the Research Triangle Institute, concluded, "Our analysis, based on high quality, independent data, finds that ERIC states improved on every measure we considered," including boosting voter registration and turnout and eliminating errors in voter files.

Facing South contacted the NC Board of Elections for information on why the state joined Interstate Crosscheck, but has received no response.