For the upcoming February 18 Spring Primary and Special Primary for Congressional District 7, the new ERIC Movers watermark will appear on the poll book for the first time. This designation identifies voters who were sent the July 2019 ERIC Movers mailing and have not registered at a new address or continued their registration at the address where the mailing was sent.
If a voter appears at their polling place and has a watermark of “Have you moved?” next to their poll book entry, the election inspector should ask the voter to certify that the address in the poll book is still the voter’s current home address. If the voter replies, “yes,” the voter should sign the poll book and continue the check-in process.
If the voter states an address that is different than the address listed next to the voter’s name or confirms that they have moved from the address listed in the poll book, the election inspector should determine if the voter is still in the correct polling location based on their new address, and advise the voter that they will need to complete an Election Day Registration using their new address.
Commission staff prepared a training and reference document to assist election inspectors with the watermark designation. The document includes a sample script for poll workers to use with voters, outlines steps once a voter has confirmed their address in the poll book or confirmed that they have moved, and answers frequently asked questions about the ERIC Movers process and common residency questions.
This process was previously approved by the Commission at its June 2019 meeting, but was on hold due to ongoing litigation. It will be used for each forthcoming election unless the courts or Commission direct otherwise. This process was developed and approved by the Commission as a substitute for the ERIC Supplemental Poll List process that was used throughout the 2018 elections cycle after data quality issues with the 2017 ERIC Movers mailing were identified.
The Commission would like to thank all clerks for their efforts in administering this process. Clerks with questions may contact the Elections Commission Help Desk at (608) 261-2028, or at @email.