Proposed reforms for Electoral Count Act Drawing bipartisan support

[Signifyin(g)Monkey]

Proposed reforms for the Electoral Count Act draw broad support

WWW.NPR.ORG

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The proposal, aimed at reforming the widely criticized 135-year-old law governing the process of casting and counting Electoral College votes, has garnered...

For now…?

[Kal-El814]

If The National Review thinks they're a good set of reforms, and the point people on them are Manchin and Collins, surely they're fucking terrible.

[Guest]

One of the links in the OP article describes the changes, since the article itself doesn’t for some reason

First bill

Quote

This bill clarifies that states must appoint presidential electors in accordance with the laws they each pass before election day and does away with the dangerously vague concept of a “failed election” in the original ECA. It requires that the governor of each state (or else another particular official specifically assigned this role by state law) be the person to certify the state’s slate of electors, to avoid the possibility of different officials sending different slates to Congress. It clarifies that the vice president’s role in counting electoral votes in Congress is purely ministerial and does not involve any sole decision-making authority. It raises the threshold for raising objections to a state’s electoral votes in Congress from one member of each house to one-fifth of the members of each house and narrows and clarifies the grounds for filing objections. And it allows for expedited federal judicial review of any challenges raised by a presidential candidate under already existing federal law to a state’s certification of its elections, but does not create any new right of action in federal court regarding state officials’ enforcement of state laws.

Second bill

Quote

It would increase the penalties for threatening election officials, improve the postal service’s procedures for handling mail-in ballots where those are allowed under state law, reauthorize the Election Assistance Commission, and increase the penalties for tampering with election records. 

 

 

The first one is meaningful change to the poorly worded ECA. The second bill is mostly window dressing. Get them passed.

[Massdriver]

These bills are good. They’re bandaids on a more rotten core which has no easy fix, but they could keep things functional for a bit longer. 

[Jason]

3 hours ago, Kal-El814 said:

If The National Review thinks they're a good set of reforms, and the point people on them are Manchin and Collins, surely they're fucking terrible.

 

Or simply toothless. 

[Jason]

3 hours ago, sblfilms said:

This bill clarifies that states must appoint presidential electors in accordance with the laws they each pass before election day and does away with the dangerously vague concept of a “failed election” in the original ECA. It requires that the governor of each state (or else another particular official specifically assigned this role by state law) be the person to certify the state’s slate of electors, to avoid the possibility of different officials sending different slates to Congress.

 

Plenty of Republican governors who'd be willing to overrule their electorate. Like in Georgia and Florida. 

[CayceG]

4 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

Plenty of Republican governors who'd be willing to overrule their electorate. Like in Georgia and Florida. 

 

 

That's surely enough reason not to pass this. 

 

 

 

Give me a break. This is a no-brainer to pass. 

[Jason]

5 minutes ago, CayceG said:

 

 

That's surely enough reason not to pass this. 

 

 

 

Give me a break. This is a no-brainer to pass. 

 

As I said above, it's not bad, but it's fairly toothless in the face of a concerted GOP effort to steal elections.