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A bipartisan Senate group announces a deal on reforming the Electoral Count Act

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Andre0087, Jul 20, 2022.

  1. Andre0087

    Andre0087 Member

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    After months of negotiations, a bipartisan group of senators on Wednesday announced two proposals related to election administration, including one to reform the Electoral Count Act, a widely criticized 1887 law that governs the process of casting and counting Electoral College votes and that came under fresh scrutiny following attempts to invalidate the presidential election results on Jan. 6, 2021.

    The plans were announced a day ahead of the House select committee's final scheduled prime time hearing on its investigation into the Capitol insurrection.

    "From the beginning, our bipartisan group has shared a vision of drafting legislation to fix the flaws of the archaic and ambiguous Electoral Count Act of 1887," the U.S. senators said in a joint statement.

    Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, led the effort to reform the law, which would need 60 votes to break a filibuster and pass the Senate. The proposal unveiled Wednesday to reform the Electoral Count Act has 16 co-sponsors, including nine Republicans. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has signaled he's open to updating the old law.

    The law itself was created after a chaotic election in 1876 that saw Democrat Samuel Tilden win the popular vote but lose the presidency because of contested election results, as three Southern states sent in competing returns. A decade later, Congress enacted the Electoral Count Act to avoid a repeated fiasco by establishing a clearer process for Electoral College certification.

    But as NPR's Miles Parks has reported, some legal experts argue the crafters of the law did a "terrible job."

    Members of both major parties opened the door to updating the ECA nearly a year after the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which came following then-President Donald Trump's pressure campaign against his own vice president to abandon his ceremonial role in tallying the results and help overturn the election.

    Advocates for reforming the ECA argue that the law isn't clear enough about the roles the vice president and Congress play in certifying election results, and that that weakness was exploited by Trump and his allies to try to keep him in power.


    Full article link:
    https://www.npr.org/2022/07/20/1105843501/electoral-count-act-changes-pence-january-6th
     
    #1 Andre0087, Jul 20, 2022
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  2. FranchiseBlade

    FranchiseBlade Member
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    It seems like a case of "good idea but poor execution."
     
    #2 FranchiseBlade, Jul 20, 2022
  3. ROCKSS

    ROCKSS Member
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    Both sides working together to come up with a plan..........wow, I am happy for them, how about doing more of this and less b****ing and moaning about the other party. Kudos to both sides
     
    #3 ROCKSS, Jul 20, 2022
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  4. mtbrays

    mtbrays Member
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    Obviously a good thing. I'm in favor of anything that modernizes our election system and updating 19th century laws is a good thing.
     
    #4 mtbrays, Jul 20, 2022
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  5. JuanValdez

    JuanValdez Member

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    Interesting, but the devil will be in the details. I notice for one thing that it'd authorize only the Governor to submit the slate of electors. It's probably a good idea to have a clear authority so that Congress doesn't get a chance to rationalize accepting the slate they like best, but it also gives the Governor singular authority over the votes from his state, and that Governor has partisan preferences on the outcome. There is court oversight to make sure he doesn't do something completely crooked, but it still gives him leverage to massage the election results before submitting. I'm not sure I have any better plan, but I feel like this one still has some weaknesses.
     
    #5 JuanValdez, Jul 20, 2022
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  6. Andre0087

    Andre0087 Member

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    Not if the ISL theory keeps getting traction...
     
    #6 Andre0087, Jul 20, 2022
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  7. TheJuice

    TheJuice Member

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    The ISL is so funny to me; because you know once there's a federal ban on abortion or gay marriage or contraception those same people will say state legislatures are subservient to SCOTUS.
     
    #7 TheJuice, Jul 20, 2022
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