copenlu/druid huggingface dataset:
Claim: The Electronic Registration Information Center is “a system that’s funded by George Soros.” (Mark Finchem, 2022-10-09)
Evidence (2023-07-01): PARKS: And in an odd twist, the fringe conspiracies on her show are now pushing Republicans to abandon one of the best tools out there to catch voter fraud. It's known as the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC. And I've spent the past few months embedded with NPR's investigations team looking at the far-right's effort to blow ERIC up. Here's Mitchell on her podcast again. [...] PARKS: But when we got into the actual problems with ERIC, Allen told me it wasn't really about that. One issue that keeps coming up is this alleged connection to George Soros. The liberal billionaire is at the center of a lot of false right wing and anti-Semitic conspiracies. The initial Gateway Pundit article calls ERIC Soros funded in its headline. And when Allen made his announcement, he said, quote, "Soros can take his minions and his database and troll someone else because Alabamians are going to be off limits permanently." But when I asked him about that accusation, he backed off it. [...] PARKS: Just to be clear, the Soros-funded Open Society Foundations has given money to Pew Charitable Trusts, which helped develop ERIC. But there's no evidence that Soros has ever had any involvement with ERIC. The data security concern Allen mentioned comes up a lot too. But ERIC encrypts all the sensitive data it gets from states, like dates of birth and the last four digits of Social Security numbers, before it even analyzes them.
Claim: The Electronic Registration Information Center is “a system that’s funded by George Soros.” (Mark Finchem, 2022-10-09)
Evidence (2022-04-28): In January, a provocative right-wing website, Gateway Pundit, published a series of blog posts with line after line of inaccurate or misleading information. The posts asserted that ERIC is actually a liberal ploy funded by billionaire philanthropist George Soros, intended to get more Democrats registered to vote. Gateway Pundit also suggested the program could allow private voter data to be released. [...] He immediately set about correcting the record, releasing statements stressing that: ERIC is one of the best tools that Alabama and other enrolled states have to check across state lines for duplicate voter registrations, inaccurate registrations and deceased voters, making it an important measure for election integrity. It is funded by states that voluntarily enroll — not by Soros. [...] ERIC is not funded by George Soros, and it’s not a Democratic venture
Claim: The Electronic Registration Information Center is “a system that’s funded by George Soros.” (Mark Finchem, 2022-10-09)
Evidence (2023-03-09): In virtual meetings taking place over a year, right-wing activists and Republican legislators have stoked concern over a multistate coalition that Texas and more than 30 other states use to help clean voter rolls. The majority of their grievances — that it is run by left-wing voter registration activists and funded by billionaire George Soros, among other things — were pulled straight from a far-right conspiracy website and are baseless. [...] In addition to unfounded speculation about Soros, the fringe site has also claimed that ERIC shares people’s personal data with unauthorized third parties and that it is a leftist scheme to enroll ineligible voters. These claims have taken deep root, and former President Donald Trump openly celebrated the announcements of departing states this week. [...] Almost none of what the so-called "TAD Talks" participants say about ERIC is true. Rather than a Soros-funded group run by liberal activists, it is a nonprofit organization paid for and managed by the member states.
Claim: The Electronic Registration Information Center is “a system that’s funded by George Soros.” (Mark Finchem, 2022-10-09)
Evidence (2023-06-15): In the recent Texas legislative session SB1070 was passed, which would allow Texas to withdraw from the voter integrity system known as ERIC, the Electronic Registration Information Center, a multistate nonprofit that prevents double voting in multiple states during an election. It also is used to help clean the voter rolls of registered voters who move to another state and then register to vote there. ERIC also requires that states engage is a voter registration program. [...] Despite the system’s mission and proven record of success, ERIC became the target of right-wing conspiracy theories spread by election deniers and MAGA conservatives who have stated they would like to end early voting and ban voting on college campuses. The right-wing groups allege that ERIC is a "voter fraud scheme." These groups have made unsubstantiated claims that ERIC is used to register ineligible voters and to suppress voter turnout. They also claim that ERIC is funded by George Soros, a wealthy Jewish philanthropist who supports liberal causes. They believe that Soros is part of a global cabal of elites who are trying to undermine American democracy and traditional values. There is no evidence to support these claims.
Claim: The Electronic Registration Information Center is “a system that’s funded by George Soros.” (Mark Finchem, 2022-10-09)
Evidence (2024-02-29): Missouri pulled out of a collaboration known as the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, which helps states keep voter rolls accurate — such as flagging when people move. Fey, the Democratic director of elections in St. Louis County, expects delays when people discover at the polls that the address on their voter registration record is incorrect. [...] The move, driven by Republican leaders, followed on the heels of a baseless article published by a St. Louis conservative website that alleged ERIC is a left-wing plot funded by billionaire George Soros, who is often the target of antisemitic conspiracies. In fact, ERIC is funded by its member states — now 24 of them, plus Washington, D.C. — and helps them kick ineligible voters off the rolls as well as register new ones. It received startup funding years ago from The Pew Charitable Trusts, which has over its history partnered with Soros’ Open Society Foundations along with many other funders, including conservative ones.
Claim: The Electronic Registration Information Center is “a system that’s funded by George Soros.” (Mark Finchem, 2022-10-09)
Evidence (2023-04-03): A day after taking office in January, Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen withdrew his state from the Electronic Registration Information Center, an interstate data-sharing compact aimed at helping states keep clean voter rolls. Asked about the move a few days later by a conservative radio host, Allen, a Republican, at first talked about privacy concerns, and claimed, inaccurately, that ERIC was launched with funding from George Soros, the liberal billionaire and a familiar bogeyman on the right. [...] None of the state officials from the other departing states has been quite as explicit as Allen was. But, while state officials and much media coverage have focused on concerns about partisanship among ERIC officials, and false conspiracy theories about Soros, some other state officials also cited ERIC’s voter outreach mandate as an important factor in their decisions to withdraw.
Claim: The Electronic Registration Information Center is “a system that’s funded by George Soros.” (Mark Finchem, 2022-10-09)
Evidence (2023-01-19): On his first day in office on Monday, Allen terminated Alabama’s membership in the Electronic Registration Information Center, a consortium of roughly 30 states that share data about their voter rolls to keep them up to date, citing concerns about data privacy. [...] Allen first promised he would leave ERIC on the campaign trail last year, shortly after the conservative website Gateway Pundit published a series of stories falsely tying ERIC to George Soros, the progressive-leaning billionaire. Those stories, which called ERIC a "left wing voter registration drive disguised as voter roll clean up," spread among Republicans who were already fanning other conspiracies about election administration, helping turn ERIC into a target of far-right organizations. Allen himself referred to Soros in explaining his hostility to ERIC in early 2022. [...] "This continued narrative of ERIC being a George Soros system is untrue. ERIC was not founded nor funded by George Soros, and to claim otherwise is either dishonest or misinformed," Merrill said in November. Becker echoed that characterization on Wednesday. "Putting aside the nature of those attacks, it’s just 100 percent false," he said.
Claim: The Electronic Registration Information Center is “a system that’s funded by George Soros.” (Mark Finchem, 2022-10-09)
Evidence (2023-04-19): According to its annual report for 2017, "[t]he Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) is a non-profit organization with the sole mission of assisting states to improve the accuracy of America’s voter rolls and increase access to voter registration for all eligible citizens."REF These are laudable and important goals, but credible claims of bias, lack of transparency, and misplaced focus in the organization’s administration, as well as questions about how the organization uses and shares its data and whether some of its requirements violate federal law, are just some of the reasons why several states recently withdrew from membership in ERIC. [...] ERIC was started as a project of the Pew Charitable Trusts. According to research conducted by the Capital Research Center, funding was also provided by "two grants to Pew in 2011 totaling $725,000" from George Soros’s Foundation to Promote Open Society.REF The key Pew staffer behind the formation of ERIC was David Becker, "a former Justice Department trial attorney who earned a reputation as a ‘hardcore leftist’ who ‘couldn’t stand conservatives.’"REF Becker formerly worked for People for the American Way, an organization that opposes voter identification requirements and other commonsense election reforms.REF
Claim: The Electronic Registration Information Center is “a system that’s funded by George Soros.” (Mark Finchem, 2022-10-09)
Evidence (2023-03-17): The Electronic Registration Information Center, known as ERIC, has a record of combating voter fraud by identifying those who have died or moved between states. Yet it also has drawn suspicion among some Republican state leaders, after a series of online stories surfaced last year questioning the center’s funding and purpose. [...] The system works by states sharing certain data through secure channels, allowing election officials to identify and remove people from voter rolls who have died or moved to other states. ERIC also helps states identify and ultimately prosecute people who vote in multiple states. [...] One conspiracy targeting the system claims that billionaire philanthropist George Soros funded it. While the voter data-sharing system did receive initial funding from the nonpartisan Pew Charitable Trusts, that money was separate from funding provided to Pew by a Soros-affiliated organization that went to an unrelated effort, Hamlin said. The system has since been funded through annual dues by member states.
Claim: The Electronic Registration Information Center is “a system that’s funded by George Soros.” (Mark Finchem, 2022-10-09)
Evidence (2023-03-04): The program was started in 2012 by seven states and was bipartisan from the beginning, with four of the founding states led by Republicans. Today, 32 states and the District of Columbia are members. In April, that will drop to 31 when Alabama officially leaves the group. Allen made various claims during his 2022 campaign about the group that prompted a rebuke from then-Secretary of State John Merrill. Merrill, a Republican, noted that ERIC had identified more than 19,000 records of potentially deceased Alabama voters since 2016. A chief complaint about the program is that it was funded by George Soros, the billionaire investor and philanthropist who has long been the subject of conspiracy theories. While ERIC received initial funding from the nonpartisan Pew Charitable Trusts, that money was separate from the money provided to Pew by a Soros-affiliated organization that went to an unrelated effort, said ERIC’s executive director, Shane Hamlin. WATCH: How new technologies could accelerate the spread of conspiracy theories The effort has since been funded through annual dues by member states. Hamlin said the current discussions among member states have been "robust" and decisions are expected soon on potential changes.
Claim: The Electronic Registration Information Center is “a system that’s funded by George Soros.” (Mark Finchem, 2022-10-09)
Evidence (2023-03-21): Mr. Election Integrity himself joined a handful of other Republican states in abruptly quitting an anti-voter fraud initiative (recently scorched by far right conspiracy cranks) that he praised as "one of the best fraud-fighting tools that we have" last month. The bipartisan network of over 30 member states, operating in relative obscurity for over a decade, shares a sophisticated and secure voter database called the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC for short. [...] Early last year, fringe conservative media began a sustained misinformation attack against ERIC, falsely painting it as part of a liberal conspiracy to steal elections. The deception was fanned by an ex-president awaiting indictment for pick-a-crime. Out of nowhere, the little known association — with a demonstrable record of fighting actual voter fraud — was hit with a torrent of false online claims of being a voter registration vehicle for Democrats funded by George Soros, the liberal billionaire/philanthropist MAGA conspiracists blame for everything.
Claim: The Electronic Registration Information Center is “a system that’s funded by George Soros.” (Mark Finchem, 2022-10-09)
Evidence (2023-06-14): Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) is a state-run voter monitoring system in which states periodically submit their voter rolls for review to identify incorrect and outdated voter information. Its membership consists of state-level election officials from 31 states and Washington, D.C. 1 ERIC was established by Pew Charitable Trusts, a left-of-center nonprofit advocacy and grantmaking organization, in 2012. 990 tax data shows that one year prior in 2011, grantmaking organization Foundation to Promote Open Society (FPOS), funded by philanthropist George Soros, provided two grants to Pew Charitable Trusts totaling $725,000, "to support the Pew Center on the States’ voter registration modernization initiative" and "expand [its] scope and scale." 2 3 [...] Electronic Registration Information Center is often seen as the successor to the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck (IVRC), a program established in 2005 by former Kansas Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh in conjunction with the states of Iowa, Nebraska, and Missouri. IVRC used a similar system as ERIC to audit voter rolls by comparing voter records between states. 21
Claim: The Electronic Registration Information Center is “a system that’s funded by George Soros.” (Mark Finchem, 2022-10-09)
Evidence (2024-10-04): The number of states leaving the Electronic Registration Information Center — used to maintain up-to-date voter rolls — has risen as conservative leaders bow to false allegations from right-wing conspiracy theorists. In 2022 and 2023, several Republican-led states withdrew from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a bipartisan data-sharing consortium used by dozens of states and the District of Columbia to keep voter rolls up to date. The withdrawals were spurred by conspiracy theories about ERIC circulated by and among far-right activists and so-called "election integrity" groups beholden to former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged. [...] The misinformation campaign can be traced to a January 2022 article on the right-wing conspiracy website Gateway Pundit that was laden with false information about ERIC’s security and its purpose in maintaining accurate records, as well as bogus claims that the organization was funded by billionaire George Soros. (ERIC received start-up funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts and is funded by member-states that voluntarily entered the consortium; it also uses strict, regularly reviewed protocols to safely handle personal data.)
Claim: The Electronic Registration Information Center is “a system that’s funded by George Soros.” (Mark Finchem, 2022-10-09)
Evidence (2023-03-06): The Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, is a multi-state partnership that experts across the political spectrum say is the only reliable, secure way for states to share voter registration data with each other. But on Monday, three Republican-led states announced they are pulling out of ERIC — leaving questions about the future of a system that up until recently was a bipartisan success story, as well as questions about how these three states will maintain accurate voter lists without such a resource. [...] Other conservative media outlets published "investigations" that implied ERIC is a taxpayer-funded voter registration drive to help Democrats, and Cleta Mitchell, the lawyer who helped Donald Trump try to overturn the 2020 election, began focusing on the organization on her podcast, which is influential in election-denier circles.
Claim: The Electronic Registration Information Center is “a system that’s funded by George Soros.” (Mark Finchem, 2022-10-09)
Evidence (2023-08-29): This Friday, more than 770 new state laws go into effect, including one requiring Texas to withdraw from an interstate compact that helps members to keep their voter rolls clean. The Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) is the lone entity of its kind shown to reduce the few instances of voter fraud that actually exist. But some of the loudest voices calling for improving election integrity are the same ones who demanded Texas pull out of the organization. [...] One of the more notorious aspects of such conspiracy theories focuses on false claims that billionaire George Soros funds the organization. Houston Public Media filed a public records request with the Texas Secretary of State's Office. Virtually every one of the emails to the office regarding ERIC from the first half of the year came from a constituent opposed to the state's membership, citing left-wing influence over ERIC's funding. Often, the emails named Soros specifically. [...] Hamlin responded, "If you're talking about funding from the Open Source Society or whatever George Soros's foundation is, it was not involved in the creation of ERIC."
Claim: The Electronic Registration Information Center is “a system that’s funded by George Soros.” (Mark Finchem, 2022-10-09)
Evidence (2023-03-06): Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft announced Monday afternoon that Missouri, along with Florida and West Virginia, were withdrawing from the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC. [...] Among the complaints is that ERIC was founded with help from the nonpartisan Pew Charitable Trusts, which received money from liberal donor George Soros’ organization for a different project. ERIC’s leadership told the AP that it is funded through annual dues by member states and has never received funding from Soros.
Claim: The Electronic Registration Information Center is “a system that’s funded by George Soros.” (Mark Finchem, 2022-10-09)
Evidence (2024-07-10): Michelle Orengo-McFarlane looks for her name on a voter registration list in San Francisco, California in a file photo. Alabama pulled out of the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) earlier this year to create its own system, but experts say it may not have the safeguards of ERIC. (David Paul Morris/Getty Images) [...] A consortium of other states uses another system, the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), to cross check voter registration information to ensure that voters are not registered to vote in a single state and to maintain their voter rolls. Allen made replacing the ERIC system a priority in his 2022 campaign for the office. He withdrew from ERIC almost immediately after taking office, claiming that ERIC is part of a liberal group funded by George Soros, a billionaire who funded liberal causes. ERIC is a nonprofit established in 2012 funded by states who are members, which includes both left leaning and conservative states.
Claim: The Electronic Registration Information Center is “a system that’s funded by George Soros.” (Mark Finchem, 2022-10-09)
Evidence (2023-12-29): Formed in 2012, the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) grew to include 33 states and D.C. It identified 12.5 million people who moved to a different state from the ones in which they were registered to vote as well as almost 600,000 deceased voters still on the rolls. The database worked excellently, before fringe blogs started calling it part of a plot funded by George Soros to boost Democratic registration. ERIC, whose operating costs are paid entirely by member states, received some seed funding from Pew Charitable Trusts, which previously received support from a foundation backed by Mr. Soros, but he has never been directly involved. [...] Some GOP secretaries of state who pulled out of ERIC had publicly defended it quite recently. In February, Iowa’s Paul Pate called it "a godsend" and Ohio’s Frank LaRose described it as "one of the best fraud-fighting tools that we have." Both announced on March 17 that their states would withdraw. American Oversight, a left-leaning activist group, filed Freedom of Information Act requests, and two lawsuits, to obtain thousands of pages of emails from states that pulled out. These documents reveal employees privately acknowledging ERIC’s importance and the lack of adequate alternatives. One email showed Mr. Ashcroft’s chief of staff dismissing a blog post about the Soros connection as "horrible and misleading." Ohio’s then-director of elections emailed ERIC’s executive director when Ohio withdrew to say: "I really worked as hard as I possibly could to avoid this."
Claim: The Electronic Registration Information Center is “a system that’s funded by George Soros.” (Mark Finchem, 2022-10-09)
Evidence (2024-07-22): If AVID sounds like a familiar concept, that’s because it’s meant to replace an existing multi-state collaboration: the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen said as much when he pulled his state out of ERIC in 2023, claiming it’s a puppet of billionaire George Soros, known for funding liberal causes. That’s not the case. ERIC was launched in 2012 as a third-party entity independent from government with financial support from its member states, both Republican- and Democrat-led. ERIC obtains its data from official voter registration and motor vehicle agencies, the Social Security Administration, and the National Change of Address Program of the U.S. Postal Service.
Claim: New York state “hospitals reporting thousands of fungus lung infections due to wearing a mask!!” (Facebook posts, 2020-07-30)
Evidence (2020-07-30): New York hospitals didn’t report this. There’s no evidence wearing a face mask properly causes fungal lung infections.
Claim: New York state “hospitals reporting thousands of fungus lung infections due to wearing a mask!!” (Facebook posts, 2020-07-30)
Evidence (2022-11-28): Fungi That Cause Lung Infections May Be Spreading Across the U.S. [...] They discovered a significant number of fungal lung infections in 48 states and D.C., including in places with no historic record of the three fungi.
Claim: New York state “hospitals reporting thousands of fungus lung infections due to wearing a mask!!” (Facebook posts, 2020-07-30)
Evidence (2024-05-08): - COVID-19 can increase the risk for severe fungal infections, like COVID-19-associated pulmonary aspergillosis, mucormycosis, and invasive candidiasis. [...] COVID-19 likely increases the risk for fungal infections because of its effect on the immune system. Treatments for COVID-19 (like steroids and other drugs) can also weaken the body's defenses against fungi. The most commonly reported fungal infections in patients with COVID-19 include: