The Electoral Count Act is at the heart of Trump’s efforts to overturn the election portion of the spending bill
WASHINGTON – Legislation to overhaul of the 1887 Electoral Counting Actwhich was at the core of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 electionis part of spending bill Congress will debate and vote on this week.
The compromise comes as the legislative clock ticks down on the current session of Congress. The spending package must be approved in some form to keep the government functioning until October 1st, then including the election proposal in the 4,155-page legislation improves its chances of passage.
Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Manchin, DW.Va., who led negotiations on the election bill, said in a joint statement Tuesday that the bill would correct “flaws in the archaic and ambiguous” law.
Here’s the latest on electoral law:
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The compromise raises the threshold for challenging state presidential nominees to 20% of the House and Senate, instead of the current legislature from each chamber.
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That The House had voted to raise the threshold to one-third of lawmakers from each chamber, but the compromise stuck to the Senate’s 20% position.
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The bill expressly states the vice president’s role in overseeing the counting of Electoral College votes is ceremonialwhich both chambers sought to clarify.
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When states submit official electoral rolls, their documents must bear the state seal and contain at least one security feature that confirms its authenticity.
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Any legal challenge to state voters in federal court will be expedited and heard by a three-judge district court panel consisting of two appeals judges and one district judge.
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Appeals would go directly to the Supreme Court.
The election overhaul received broad bipartisan support
Two members of the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack drafted the House version: Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. That The House had approved their version in September by a vote of 229-203.
The Senate version was negotiated by a dozen bipartisan lawmakers and won a key endorsement from Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
The legislation aims to reduce confusion about electoral college votes
Congress counts Electoral College votes from the states on Jan. 6 after a presidential election. The event is historically boring, but became a flashpoint for a riot in 2021 as Trump fought to overturn the election results.
John Eastman, one of Trump’s personal lawyersproposed a strategy for his supporters in seven key states that President Joe Biden won to send alternative electoral lists to Congress.
If those states flipped for Trump, Eastman argued, he could potentially have won the election. If voter fraud created enough confusion about a state’s results, Eastman argued that Vice President Mike Pence could have single-handedly thrown the election to the House, where GOP lawmakers could potentially have kept Trump as president because Republicans controlled a majority of the state’s delegations.
But Pence refused to participate in the scheme. Accordingly, rioters set up a gallows outside the Capitol and shouted “hang Mike Pence” as they rammed through the building.
U.S. District Judge David Carter ruled in a case involving a committee subpoena that Trump and Eastman “more likely than not” conspired dishonestly to prevent Congress from passing the scheme.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Congress must vote on an overhaul of the Electoral Count Act in the spending bill
