Senators pass vote count law reform in wake of Capitol riot: NPR

Legislation passed by the Senate would clarify that the role of the vice president in certifying the Electoral College vote is ceremonial. Here, then-Vice President Mike Pence is seen in the House chamber early on January 7, 2021, to complete Electoral College work after a crowd loyal to President Donald Trump stormed Capitol.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

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J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Legislation passed by the Senate would clarify that the role of the vice president in certifying the Electoral College vote is ceremonial. Here, then-Vice President Mike Pence is seen in the House chamber early on January 7, 2021, to complete Electoral College work after a crowd loyal to President Donald Trump stormed Capitol.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Lawmakers have repeatedly said they want to prevent another Jan. 6-style attack on the United States Capitol from 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 omnibus spending bill includes a section that would reform the Voter Count Act, an 1887 law that governs the electoral college vote count in Congress.

For years, legal scholars have feared the law is poorly drafted and needs clarification, and former President Donald Trump and his allies have targeted the law’s ambiguities in their attempts to void the 2020 election. .

“Imagine there was a law on the books requiring you to travel by horse and buggy. That’s what the Voter Count Act looks like,” said Rebecca Green, co-director of the Election Law Program at the College. of William & Mary. NPR this summer.

In the time since voting ended in 2020 and the results were certified, Trump and his team argued that then-Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to interfere with the counting of electoral votes because the law as it currently stands appoints the vice -president as chairman of the joint session of Congress where such votes are counted.

Legal experts from across the political spectrum have debunked this interpretation of the law, but Trump’s lobbying campaign still led to the powder keg that erupted on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, when chants of “Hang Mike Pence!” echoed through the halls of Congress.

The update adopted by the Senate would clarify that the vice-president’s role in the procedure is purely ceremonial.

Importantly, the measure would also increase the stand to oppose a state’s voters list. As it stands, it only takes a single House member and a senator to challenge a state’s voters and send both houses into a potentially days-long debate period, even without concerns. legitimate.

The new legislation would raise the opposition threshold to 20% of members of each chamber.

The spending bill now goes to the House, which passed a similar electoral reform measure in September, with nine Republicans voting with all Democrats in favor.

Legal experts and many lawmakers had said it was imperative to make this certification update before the next Congress, and especially before the 2024 presidential cycle heats up. A bipartisan group of senators, led by the senses. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, spent much of 2022 negotiating the changes.

“We’re hanging by a thread,” Manchin said of the legislation recently, at an event hosted by the National Election Integrity Council. “By a very, very thin thread of democracy.”