A years-long bureaucratic snafu has imperiled D.C.’s membership in a multi-state system that checks the accuracy of states’ voter rolls, raising the possibility that D.C. could become the first jurisdiction in the country to be formally kicked out of the system.

The situation involves the Electronic Registration Information Center, better known as ERIC, which was founded in 2012 with the mission of helping states “improve the accuracy of America’s voter rolls.” The non-profit organization does so by regularly collecting voter registration data and motor vehicle licensing data from the 32 member states to allow them to identify voters who have moved, died, or may have multiple registrations — including in different states.

But D.C. has been inconsistent in submitting its data to ERIC in recent years, said Monica Evans, the director of the D.C. Board of Elections, during a D.C. Council oversight hearing on Wednesday.

The source of the problem, she said, was a large chunk of data collected by the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles, which not only serves as a principal point of voter registration but also maintains information on people who move within the city, into the city, or away from it. Evans said the board has only had “intermittent success” getting the data from the DMV over the last three years, and that the problems have gotten so persistent recently that ERIC has issued warning and probation letters to D.C. — and even raised the possibility that the city could be removed from the system altogether.

“If we are essentially kicked out of ERIC that means we will not be able to take advantage that data that comes from other states,” said Evans. “This is a tool to help those member states update voter rolls as much as they can. That is the gold standard… in terms of getting information from other states. Which is why states are joining ERIC. It helps all of us provide the most accurate voter rolls we can.”

Evans also told the council that the DMV told her last week that it would need a $2,000 monthly payment to provide the data the elections board needs, the first time any such payment was brought up.

“This isn’t on you, it’s on them. This is ridiculous,” said Councilmember Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), who chairs the council committee that oversees the elections board, to Evans.

In a statement, the DMV said it had done its part in providing data to the elections board.

“Since 2018, D.C. DMV has had a webservice interface that allows the Board of Elections to access detailed information in real-time for District residents with a driver license or identification card. Separate from the information available through the online database, the Board of Elections has requested multiple detailed data reports from DC DMV related to driver license and ID Card holders. DC DMV has provided the Board of Elections with all requested reports and all requested data,” it said in an emailed statement.

The accuracy of D.C.’s voter rolls has been an issue for years. A 2016 report from the D.C. Auditor identified a thousands of mistakes in the city’s voter registry, while a separate report last year found that 11% of ballots mailed to voters for the Nov. 2020 general election were returned as undeliverable — a rate eight times higher than anywhere in the U.S. Activists trying to get a tipped-wage initiative on the ballot have more recently complained of finding thousands of inactive voters or inaccurate information on the rolls.

Evans told the council on Wednesday that a long-awaited new voter registration system would become functional this spring.

Shane Hamlin, ERIC’s executive director, tells DCist/WAMU that all of the 32 states that take part in the system are held to the same high standards for the data they are expected to share. And with that data comes the benefits of the system: ERIC issues regular reports to states that tips them off when voters move or die, as well as when those voters move to another state and register to vote there.

Since 2013, ERIC has identified more than 8.6 million people moving between participating states, 15.6 million people moving within states, 807,000 duplicate registrations, and 500,000 voters who have died.

But Hamlin says that in recent years D.C. — which joined ERIC in 2014 — has not been submitting the same type of data at the same regular intervals as other states. (States are required to submit data every 60 days.)

“They have not been able to confirm important information we need confirmed in order to use the data provided. And so if a data upload doesn’t meet the requirements, we can’t use it. Those requirements are in place to ensure the data is accurate, that it is what we need to ensure the matches we’re providing are accurate and actionable and good, strong data. And for whatever reason they are not following through on the requirements,” he said.

Hamlin says he has had meeting with D.C. officials about the problems and given the city multiple extensions on deadlines. He says he’s willing to give D.C. 45 more days to resolve the issues, or face a consequence that’s never been used: expulsion from ERIC.

“We’re kind of reaching the end of our ability to sort of accommodate and be patient with the DMV as they try to work through this and figure it out,” he said. “It is jeopardizing the District’s membership in ERIC. Not getting D.C.’s DMV data is harming other states’ ability to maintain good, accurate voter rolls. And it’s certainly harming the District’s ability to update records and have good, strong, accurate voter rolls.”

The only other recent change to ERIC’s membership came last month, when Louisiana announced that it was voluntarily withdrawing after a right-wing conspiracy website made unfounded claims about links to George Soros and voter fraud in the 2020 election. Election experts told NPR this week that ERIC actually seeks to resolve the very concerns with voter rolls that have fueled some of the false claims around fraud in the last presidential election.

On Wednesday, Allen pledged to push the issue with the DMV.

“There is urgency here,” he said. “Maybe we’re avoiding termination for the moment, but that’s only temporary.”

This post was updated with a comment from the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles.