The legislation passed by the Senate would make it clear that the vice president’s role in confirming the Electoral College vote is ceremonial. Here, then-Vice President Mike Pence is seen in the House of Representatives room early in the morning of January 7, 2021, to complete the work of the Electoral College after a crowd loyal to President Donald Trump’s into the Capitol.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
hide captions
switch captions
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
The legislation passed by the Senate would make it clear that the vice president’s role in confirming the Electoral College vote is ceremonial. Here, then-Vice President Mike Pence is seen in the House of Representatives room early in the morning of January 7, 2021, to complete the work of the Electoral College after a crowd loyal to President Donald Trump’s into the Capitol.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Lawmakers have said again and again that they want to prevent another January 6 attack on the US Capitol from ever happening again.
It took nearly two years, but on Thursday, as part of a government spending package, the Senate passed the first federal election legislation to that end.
The general spending bill includes a section that would reform the Voter Counting Act, an 1887 law that governs the counting of votes by the Electoral College in Congress.
For years, legal scholars have worried that the law is poorly written and needs clarification, and former President Donald Trump and his allies. target ambiguity of the law in their bid to overturn their 2020 election.
Rebecca Green, co-director of the electoral law program at the College of William & Mary, said: “Imagine there’s a law in the books that requires you to travel by horse and buggy. That’s the Vote Counts Act. “. NPR this summer.
During the period after the voting ends in 2020 and the results were certified, Trump and his team argued that then-Vice President Mike Pence had the right to interfere in the electoral college vote count because current law requires the vice president to preside over the joint session. of Congress where those votes are counted.
Legal experts across the political spectrum have rejected that reading of the law, but Trump’s pressure campaign still resulted in the powder barrel exploding on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, as protesters chanted. “Hang Mike Pence!” resounded through the halls of Parliament.
The update passed by the Senate will clarify that the vice president’s role in the proceedings is purely ceremonial.
Importantly, this measure will also enhance bar opposes a state’s list of electors. Currently, it only takes one member of the House of Representatives and one senator to challenge the electors of a state and bring both chambers into a debate that could potentially last days, even if not. have legitimate concerns.
The new law will raise the objection threshold to 20% of the members of each chamber.
The spending bill now goes to the House of Commons, in September passed a similar electoral reform measurewith nine Republicans voting with all Democrats supporting.
Legal experts and many lawmakers have said it is imperative to complete this certification update before the next Congress, and especially before the 2024 presidency heats up. A bipartisan group of senators, led by Senators Joe Manchin, DW.Va., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, has spent much of 2022. Negotiate changes.
“We are holding on to a topic,” Manchin said of the law recently, at an event organized by the National Council for Electoral Integrity. “By a very, very thin democratic cord.”
