>>15434099
So then I start looking for the Electoral Count Act, since Ari says it's unconstitutional or some such similiar. But what I find mostly, was article after article of the Democrats trying to reform the Electoral Count Act. I didn't know they were doing that. I don't know anything about the Act, so need to read up, but with Dems all over it, better to see what's up with it.
House panel issues first proposed reforms to Electoral Count Act after Jan. 6 attack
January 14, 20224:17 PM ET
Claudia Grisales, photographed for NPR, 13 November 2019, in Washington DC.
CLAUDIA GRISALES
Republican House members objected to the certification of votes, allowed under the Electoral Count Act, from Nevada during a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021. It was rejected because a senator did not join in the objection.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
A congressional committee has issued the first staff report on the Electoral Reform Act, a key target for lawmakers who are now weighing new legislative fixes to safeguard elections in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The Democratic-led House Administration Committee late Thursday rolled out the 31-page report on the Electoral Count Act of 1887, after months of review by a team of legal experts and staff. Lawmakers say the siege made clear that former President Donald Trump and other Republicans tried to exploit weaknesses in the law to give rise to efforts to overturn the results.
Committee staff said the dated law is "badly in need of reform," and issued more than a half dozen proposals, including dramatically raising the threshold for objections to a state's presidential election results and removing the vice president as the presiding officer.
t could become the basis for legislative proposals for the House select committee investigating the deadly siege, and get folded into ongoing Senate negotiations on election reforms, said California Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, who chairs the House Administration panel and sits on the Jan. 6 committee.
"This is a statute that's over 100 years old," Lofgren told NPR shortly before the report was released. "It has ancient language that may not be as clear as we'd want, and we are now observing the potential of threats to the orderly running of elections and apolitical running of elections in the future."
"We want to do everything we can to make sure that there is no funny business," Lofgren added.
The Electoral Count Act, also known as the ECA, dictates the counting of electoral votes following a presidential election. Congress oversees the count of finalized state votes, while also allowing lawmakers to object to the results.
Lofgren said the panel had a team of lawyers and staff look at potential changes to the law, and scholars of "every political stripe" were consulted along the way. She also noted there are now House and Senate staff-level talks on potential Electoral Count Act reforms.
"I do think having the staff analysis out will be helpful," Lofgren said. "So the public can take a look at…what the options are — as well as the senators."
The timing for the potential reforms could prove fortuitous for Congress: Senate Democrats are the verge of a final slog to advance major voting rights legislation that is doomed to fail without Republican support. Traction on a new wave of election security proposals could offer Democrats a consolation prize instead.
'''Potential for bipartisan traction
Key Republicans, such as Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have already expressed interest in strengthening the ECA. And members of a bipartisan group, including Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, have jumpstarted talks to address that and other laws in the wake of the Jan. 6 violence.'''
Earlier this week, Collins told reporters the Electoral Count Act is a "central piece" to the bipartisan group's talks now.
For example, only one member from each chamber is needed currently to raise objections to a state's election results. That fueled Republican attempts last year to thwart the certification of President Biden's election, and delayed the proceedings, which were disrupted by the Capitol breach.
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https://www.npr.org/2022/01/14/1073025283/house-panel-issues-first-proposed-reforms-to-electoral-count-act-after-jan-6-att