Collins, Manchin offer bipartisan bill making changes to Electoral College
by Alexander Bolton - 07/20/22 1:57 PM ET
A group of bipartisan senators led by Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) have unveiled legislation clarifying that the vice president does not have the power to overturn the results of a presidential election and making it harder for lawmakers to object to the results of the Electoral College vote.
The introduction of legislation follows months of negotiations in which senators sought to respond to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, when a mob of pro-Trump protesters tried to stop Congress’s certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.
It reforms the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which many senators thought was too vague and which former President Trump tried to exploit to stop Biden’s transition to power.
The bill would make it explicitly clear that a sitting vice president only has a “ministerial” role when Congress convenes to certify the results of a presidential election and has no authority to overturn the results.
The legislation would require at least one-fifth of the membership of each chamber of Congress to lodge an objection to any state’s slate of electors.
And it would identify state governors as responsible for submitting certificates identifying slates of electors unless state law specifies otherwise.
The legislation directly responds to Trump’s claims that then-Vice President Mike Pence had the power to not recognize Biden’s victory in the Electoral College after winning the 2020 election by more than 7 million votes.
The senators who negotiated the proposal said they consulted with a wide variety of election experts and legal experts.
“We have developed legislation that establishes clear guidelines for our system of certifying and counting electoral votes for president and vice president. We urge our colleagues in both parties to support these simple, commonsense reforms,” they said in a joint statement.
Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) participated in the negotiations and are expected to vote for the measure.
Senate Rules Committee Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) says she will hold a hearing on the bill in the next several weeks.
more
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3567610-senate-group-unveils-bill-to-avoid-repeat-of-jan-6/
