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Outsourcing of State Voter Rolls Draws Serious Question About Oklahoma Voter Integrity

Editor’s Note: In furtherance of our commitment to investigating the integrity of Oklahoma’s elections, Ignite Liberty has partnered with the Oklahoma Liberty & Integrity Group. OKLIG is one to the leading grassroots election integrity organizations in the state. 

by Wendi Montgomery Dial, Principal Co-Founder Oklahoma Liberty & Integrity Group

Last year, in the shadows of the disastrous 2020 election, the State Legislature passed SB 710, which changed Oklahoma Election Law to allow the Secretary of the Election Board the authority to enjoin the State to any voter list maintenance organization they wished.

Those laws, now codified as 26 OS § 4-121, specifically allowed the Secretary to join the State to the ERIC system. ERIC stand for Electronic Registration Information Center. It is a privately run Corporation with its own set of bylaws. In specific, Section 1, paragraph A of the legislation stated the following:

The Secretary of the State Election Board may join the State of Oklahoma as a member in one or more multistate voter list maintenance organizations including, but not limited to, the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) or its successor. The Secretary is authorized to expend funds as available for membership fees, dues and other expenses related to such membership.”

Once a member of ERIC, the member states MUST turn over information to ERIC including all motor vehicle records, voter files, and ‘use its best efforts to transmit’ state agency records that have ‘data relating to individuals that exists in the records of other agencies within its jurisdiction that perform any voter registration functions, including, but not limited to, those required to perform voter registration pursuant to the Nation Voter Registration Act…’

ERIC consists of a Board of Directors, populated by appointed officials from member states that pay a one-time joining fee, then yearly dues as prescribed by the Board. The Board appoints officers as they see fit. They can also remove any Director by three quarters vote of the entire Board. The Board is directed by the bylaws to create a Privacy and Technology Advisory Board committee and appoint members to that committee.

This decision effectively put unelected officials from Oklahoma and other states in charge of the decisions regarding the monitoring, updating, and maintenance of Oklahoma’s voter registration database. This database is used for all state and federal elections.  The voter database is the list by which people in the state may legally cast their ballots in all elections.

Granted, the voter rolls, even after ‘cleaning’ this past year, are a mess. 207,000 voter registrations have no registration date listed for them as per the analysis of the election integrity group Oklahoma Liberty Watch. 104,000 registrations have not been verified, as admitted to by Secretary of the State Election Board Ziriax in his testimony to the Elections and Ethics Committee during the sometimes tense hearing on Representative Sean Roberts’ HB 3677 (co-sponsored by Sen. Nathan Dahm), which called for the reregistration of all Oklahomans eligible to vote by 2023. That provision of the bill was inexplicably gutted from the bill after Ziriax gave a $1 million price tag for reregistration without giving an itemized listing of how he came to that figure. Please recall above that the Legislature authorized a handsome and ongoing payment to a privately run board outside of Oklahoma to run our voter registration database just last year. So, the money argument against Roberts’ reregistration plan is questionable, at best.

ERIC, while claiming to help clean up voter registration rolls of ineligible voters, inexplicably includes this directive in Section 2b of its Membership Agreement: ‘Under no circumstances shall the Member transmit an individual’s record where the record contains documentation or other information indicating that the individual is a non-citizen of the United States.’

ERIC’s origination is well tracked by the Gateway Pundit and was originally funded by the left leaning Pew Charitable Trusts, which received grants from the Soros Open Society. David Becker, from the hard left People For the American Way, became Director of Election Initiatives in 2008. The article lays out the organization’s ties to multiple hard left leaning groups, including CSME, a subsidiary of the Soros funded New Venture Fund, and CTCL, the organization that distributed Zuckerburg money in 2020. Another organization tied to ERIC by the Gateway Pundit is the Soros funded Democracy Fund.

The Executive Director of ERIC is chosen by the Board of Directors. Currently that individual is Shane Hamlin, who was in charge of elections in Washington State. A quick search of his name has him affiliated as a “Coach” to an organization called Election SOS. Who is Election SOS? This is an organization that is part of Democracy SOS and has handed out $200,000 in propaganda grant funding money to ‘journalists’ and news outlets all over the United States for the 2022 midterm elections, concentrated in the so-called ‘swing states’. A quick search of Democracy SOS’s partners quickly brings up the names of The Democracy Fund, Hearken, a major proponent of Critical Race Theory and affiliated with the BBC, Gannett, and Graham Media Companies, the Trusting News, another hard left organization, and Jay Rosen, a journalism professor who writes opinion pieces on how journalists should be left wing activists when covering campaigns.

Election SOS has directions for journalists on ‘how’ to report on matters like elections, Extremist Organizations (they believe the only extremists are inexplicably far right groups after the incident on January 6th at the Capitol, ignoring the latest revelations from Congressional investigations and released video that that incident was far from a violent right-wing insurrection), correcting so-called ‘misinformation’ and countering with ‘alternative explanations’ (PROPOGANDA), messaging on violence (directing journalists on exactly HOW to describe certain events, aka PROPOGANDA), and other disturbing directions for journalists when covering elections and other events (such as how to start your own Antifa group). A list of media outlets and journalists who took this grant money can be found here . Even more disturbing is this organization has placed 39 people in newrooms across the country as part of a ‘fellowship’ program.

Finally, given all of the above, the most disturbing aspect of the Oklahoma Legislature passing legislation to join ERIC is that they put our voter rolls in the hands of an organization that is run by a private corporation with a board of appointed officials from all over the country, and send this corporation all of our voter and motor vehicle department data, as well as individual data from other state agencies, allowing 31 people from states other than Oklahoma decide what happens to Oklahoma’s voter registrations.

It is especially baffling considering there was an easier and much closer to home way to fix the problems with our voter rolls. Simply re-registering voters AND verifying the information on an individual’s application would take care of the situation, as well as putting our rolls back on paper and having them stored and built at the county level.

Given the irregularities already reported in Oklahoma’s 2020 election, it is reasonable to ask the Legislature if they are truly committed to securing our elections, or if they simply are going to continue to parrot the tired line that we “have the most secure elections in the country.” Currently HB 3677 has passed the House Elections and Ethics Committee and is awaiting hearing on the House floor.

References for this article (links included in the text above):

http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2021-22%20ENR/SB/SB710%20ENR.PDF

https://electionsos.com/coach/shane-hamlin/

https://www.eac.gov/sites/default/files/event_document/files/Shane-Hamlin-PCEA-Testimony-ERIC.pdf

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/01/eric-investigation-part-3-soros-open-society-founding-nations-largest-voter-roll-clean-operation/

https://electionsos.com/about-us/

https://www.scribd.com/document/490657147/Guidance-for-Reporting-on-Extremist-Groups-Threats#download&from_embed

https://www.scribd.com/document/395596306/Introduction-to-AntiFascism

https://electionsos.com/resource/election-sos-first-aid-kit-messaging-on-violence/

https://electionsos.com/resource/reporting-on-extremist-groups/

https://wearehearken.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Rosen

https://pressthink.org/2019/06/key-steps-in-the-citizens-agenda-style-of-campaign-coverage/

https://democracyfund.org/

https://ericstates.org/who-we-are/

https://ericstates.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/ERIC_Bylaws_01-2020.pdf

Senator Dahm Enters Race For U.S. Senate

TULSA

State Senator Nathan Dahm, candidate for U.S. Senate

What has already been a very contentious race for U.S. Senate between Senator James Lankford (incumbent) and Tulsa-area pastor Jackson Lahmeyer took a somewhat-unexpected twist over the last week as rumors began to fly about Senator Nathan Dahm, a longtime conservative stalwart in the Oklahoma Senate, jumping in the race.

Today, those rumors were confirmed with Senator Dahm’s formal announcement of his candidacy for U.S. Senate.

This past weekend, Ignite Liberty sat down with Senator Dahm for his first official interview as a candidate for U.S. Senate to discuss his decision to run, the issues he feels are important to Oklahomans on the Federal level, and the accusations leveled at him by the   campaign. The interview is below:

IL: Senator Dahm, when did you begin considering a run for Senate, and what factors led into your decision?

SD: Well, my wife and I began considering it well over a year ago before there was a challenger to Senator Lankford. We both felt strongly that the Lord wanted us to continue in public service…that our time serving the people of Oklahoma was not over yet. As you know, I’m serving my last term in the state senate, so we began prayerfully considering the options open to us…and there were many. Over and over again, through prayer and seeking God’s face, He kept leading us back to this particular race. In the end, after many months of prayer and consulting with friends and family, we felt it clear that this was the next step for us.

IL: There was an anonymous phone poll that was sent out to members of the OKGOP this past summer listing you as a possible candidate. Were you, or anyone associated with you, behind that poll?

SD: No, absolutely not. In fact, I was just as surprised as anybody to get the poll. It was sent to all of the delegates to the OKGOP State Convention. As you know, since I am an elected official, I am a delegate. So I even got a copy of the poll. It took me completely by surprise. I have no idea who was behind that poll, but it wasn’t me or anyone associated with me.

IL: Jackson Lahmeyer recently sent an email out accusing you, in so many words, of being and “establishment Washington D.C. plant” designed to keep James Lankford in office. Is there any truth to that?

SD:  That’s absolutely absurd! My record as a State Senator is absolutely unimpeachable. Everyone that knows me knows I am beyond reproach, and incorruptible. So for him to assail my character and accuse me of taking some kind of bribe, of running to throw the race to Lankford in exchange for another position elsewhere, is utterly absurd. Someone who would say anything to get elected will often say, or do, anything to stay in office. It should be a red flag to all Oklahomans that he has chosen to attack me with wild, baseless accusations rather than stand on his own merits.

IL: Why do you think you would be better suited to represent the people of Oklahoma in D.C. than Senator Lankford?

SD: One of the main reasons is my proven record of accomplishments for the people of Oklahoma during my time as State Senator. It’s very easy to stand up and give good speeches that people clap for, but talk is cheap. I’ve followed through on my campaign promises with actionable items. I’ve consistently advanced 2nd Amendment Rights for the people of Oklahoma; I’ve voted against tax increases and unnecessary budget increases, even though most of my party voted for it; and been a consistent champion for the dignity of pre-born Oklahomans. In fact, I was even stripped of my committee chairmanships because my own party leadership deemed me “too conservative.” I have been a proven champion of the conservative principles that made this country great. I will not abandon that simply because I have an office in D.C.

IL: This is a time of great peril and uncertainty for our country, both domestically and globally. What would you say are the top three threats to the U.S. domestically?

SD: Well, many of these are also significant global threats as well. I would say the top domestic threat is Election Integrity. We do not have secure elections in this country. The 2020 Presidential Election was absolutely stolen. That’s a fact. If we can’t trust our elections, then we cease to exist as a republic. Obviously there is a global element here as well, not just from the foreign interference but from the weakening affect this had on the U.S. in the global stage.

The second threat I would say is the National Debt. We are quite simply on an unsustainable and immoral path. We cannot continue to spend our children and grandchildren into oblivion. We are mortgaging their future, and then borrowing from Communist China to pay for it. It is immoral, it violates every principle of good government, and it must stop.

The third is the growth of government. Our God-given individual liberties have never been more threatened than they are right now. As government grows, liberty shrinks. Right now with the oppressive growth of government, conservatives are being deliberately squeezed out of all levels of society: the military, small (and large) businesses, schools, government…this must stop.

IL: Aside from what you just mentioned, what are the top 3 threats globally?

SD: The first is our southern border. A nation without borders ceases to be a nation…which is exactly what the Left wants. We are the only nation in the world with open borders, and as a result we have lost significant standing in the world stage. Everybody knew that President Trump meant business when it came to securing the southern border…and we were respected because of it. Now we have a humanitarian crisis because the Biden Administration has left or border wide open. Consequently, this also plays into election integrity, because Democrats want illegal immigrants to flood our cities and towns in order to gain New Democrat voters.

The second is China. President Trump had the ability to show tremendous strength, which is the only thing that totalitarian governments understand. You show them strength, they will back off. They laugh at all of this “wokeness.” They have a China-First policy, while the Biden Administration has an America-Last policy. As such, they’re completely rolling over this administration on a regular basis. We must stand up to China.

The third, I would say, is focusing on our alliance with Israel and Taiwan. Those are our two greatest allies in two of the most contentious parts of the world. We need to be using our trade to bolster those alliances. It is appalling to me that there is talking of cancelling the contract for Israel’s Iron Dome. We cannot and must not let that happen.

IL: Speaking of Taiwan, what do you think the U.S. should do in response to the shortage of semi-conductors? Should we continue to support Taiwan, move all of the manufacturing back home, or a combination of the two?

SD: All of the above, really. We should continue to support Taiwan’s healthcare technology and semi-conductor industries as they are a valuable ally. That being said, it is important to our national security that we increase domestic production as well. I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive.

IL: Would you, given the information you have now, support any military engagement against China in order to protect Taiwan?

SD: I am very leery of any military action separate of a Congressional Declaration of War. When it comes to a foreign nation-state, the Constitution vests the sole power to declare war in Congress. When it comes to dealing with insurgents, the Constitution does give Congress the ability to issue letters of Marque and Reprisal. Anything outside of that scope I would not support.

IL: How is D.C. in general, and the Biden Administration in specific, not representing the best interest of Oklahomans?

SD: Most of them haven’t even read and certainly aren’t following the Constitution. The federal government has a limited scope of responsibilities according to the Constitution. They don’t even understand that there is a difference between Oklahoma, NYC, or Chicago, or LA. They think the government that created those problems is the solution. We don’t believe that. We believe that we are self-reliant. The solutions that they are trying to shove upon us don’t fit for Oklahomans because we’re a different state, with different values.

IL: What do you think should be done to get American back to work?

SD: We should be stopping payments to people who aren’t willing to work. Unemployment is for a specific reason. The Democrats want a universal basic income provided by the Government…because then the Government can control every decision you make about how you spend your money. We need to cut off that Government dependency and incentivize work like we did under President Trump.

IL: What do think the Federal Government has right about handling COVID?

SD: Very little, including under President Trump. We never should have shut down businesses. It’s the lifeblood of our economy. There is no such thing a “essential” and “non-essential” workers. Every job is essential, not just to that employee but to our economy as a whole. We should have protected our most vulnerable, at higher ages, with co-morbidities, and left the rest of society to determine for ourselves the best way to protect ourselves and our families. On the whole, this has been a wholly unconstitutional response.

IL: What has it done wrong?

SD: Everything. The overreach. The masking of our students. The shutting down of businesses. The mandating of vaccinations. It’s not truly about health, it’s about government control. The vast majority of what the government did was unconstitutional.