A bill limiting objection to presidential results advances in the Senate

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

After Sen. Mitch McConnell expressed support for the measure, the Senate recently voted in favor of reforming the Electoral Count Act of 1887.

As a result of a 14–1 vote on Sept. 27, the Senate Rules Committee approved the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022 and sent the bill to the Senate floor. Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) wrote the bill.

The Senate bill was supported by 14 senators, including McConnell.

“I’ll proudly support the legislation provided that nothing more than practical changes are made to its current form,” McConnell said in remarks to the Senate. He added that the bill as introduced “is the only chance to get an outcome and to actually make law.”

“Congress’s process for counting the presidential electors’ votes was written 135 years ago,” he said. “The chaos that came to a head on January 6th of last year certainly underscored the need for an update. So did Januaries 2001, 2005, and 2017; in each of which, Democrats tried to challenge the lawful election of a Republican president.”

Senator Ted Cruz voted no on the Senate Rules Committee.

“This bill is a bad bill. … It’s bad policy and it’s bad for democracy. There are serious constitutional questions in the bill,” Cruz said in the Senate. “The text of the Constitution, Article Two says, ‘Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors.’ This bill is Congress trying to intrude on the authority of the state legislatures to do that. But it’s also exceptionally bad policy.”

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

“We know that Democrats aren’t opposed to objecting to elections and presidential electors. We know that because Democrats objected in 1969. And then they objected again in 2001. Then they objected again in 2005. And then they objected again in 2017. So Democrats have a long history of going up and objecting to electors,” he said.

28 September 2022