Over the last decade, red and blue states have quietly forged a novel bureaucracy to coordinate voter registration. The Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) is a non-profit corporation composed of state election officials. Participating states share voter registration and motor vehicle records to keep voter registrations up to date as voters move or die—a challenge for any one state made manageable by data sharing. Now, a rash of Republican departures threatens to undo ERIC’s bipartisan progress.

The Republican exodus is fueled by disinformation smearing ERIC as a “Soros-funded organization.” It began on right-wing radio and was stoked by the Gateway Pundit. Louisiana quickly withdrew in response. In the last few months, six other states, including Florida and Ohio, have too.

Any congressional response to the problem of coordinating voter registration—now exacerbated by the withdrawals from ERIC—is limited by the constitutional allocation of election authority between the federal and state governments. Congress does not have the authority to simply federalize voter registration for all elections. Instead, those who care about the health of our democracy, particularly in today’s age of distrust, should push Congress to fortify ERIC’s national, but not federal, approach to integrating our balkanized voter registration framework.

Read more at Slate