On Tuesday, Senate Leaders Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer came together on a bill to prevent future elections from being overturned unfairly. The Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act is now all but guaranteed to pass.
The bi-partisan bill is sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and was written after the events of Jan. 6, 2021. The bill aims to stop future presidents from trying to overturn election results through Congress.
The bill is an 1887 law and reaffirms that the vice president has only a ministerial role at the joint session of Congress to count electoral votes, as well as raise the threshold necessary for members of Congress to object to a state’s electors.
“Congress’s process for counting their presidential electors’ votes was written 135 years ago. The chaos that came to a head on January 6th of last year certainly underscored the need for an update,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “The Electoral Count Act ultimately produced the right conclusion … but it’s clear the country needs a more predictable path.”
Schumer said his piece in a statement, “Make no mistake: as our country continues to face the threat of the anti-democracy MAGA Republican movement — propelled by many GOP leaders who either refused to take a stand or actively stoked the flames of division in our country — reforming the Electoral Count Act ought to be the bare minimum of action the Congress takes.”
The act then went through the rules committee of which both leaders are a part, and was approved by a vote 14-1, with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas being the lone no vote.
The bill seemed to go through many changes as it became the House version, which passed the chamber last week with Democrats and just nine GOP votes. Most of the bipartisan support seemed to be generated by the senate version, which one congress advances with is yet to be seen.
Finally, the original sponsors of the bill released a statement expressing their appreciation for the congress-wide support of the bill in a joint statement. “We are pleased that bipartisan support continues to grow for these sensible and much-needed reforms to the Electoral Count Act of 1887.”
Collins and Manchin continued, “Our bill is backed by election law experts and organizations across the ideological spectrum. We will keep working to increase bipartisan support for our legislation that would correct the flaws in this archaic and ambiguous law.”
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