Governor Glenn Youngkin has issued his first vetoes of the year. One of them rejects an effort to make sure Virginia's voter rolls are accurate.
More than a decade ago, the Pew Charitable Trusts created a nonprofit collaboration of states to share data about voters who have moved or died. Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin removed Virginia from the group known as ERIC and he’s now vetoing legislation forcing Virginia to rejoin.
"I think he's wanted to make sure that we have a system that works, that's accountable," says House Republican Leader Todd Gilbert. "I'm not one of those people who says that our system is ultimately broken. It is like any system, capable of being improved."
The governor's position on that issue may be the victim of conspiracy theories, says Delegate Mark Sickles. He's a Democrat from northern Virginia who introduced the bill to force Virginia to rejoin ERIC.
"There were a lot of Republican governor states that were a part of ERIC, and then all of a sudden a social media personality called the Gateway Pundit started seeing conspiracies there and the Republican-governed states started pulling out," he says.
"So, Virginia will no longer be in ERIC because of the influence of the Gateway Pundit," reporter Michael Pope asks.
"Yes sir," the delegate replies.
Sickles says Virginia is now trying to make individual agreements with states, which he says will be less efficient and less accurate than being part of the multi-state coalition.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
