Manchin says Electoral Count Act reform would target ‘bad actors’ trying to overturn elections

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Wednesday touted a bipartisan bill he introduced with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) to reform the Electoral Count Act (ECA) that he said would fix a law “bad actors” have manipulated for their benefit.

The act was passed in 1887 as an answer to the disputed 1876 election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden — which included competing slates of electors from multiple states — and close elections in 1880 and 1884. Both Republicans and Democrats have used provisions in the act, including during four of the last six presidential elections, for what Collins said were “frivolous objections.”

Now, lawmakers hope that by reforming the act, they can help prevent another Jan. 6, 2021, from happening.

“As we saw on Jan. 6, 2021, a lot of the ‘fixes’ established by the original Electoral Count Act are not merely outdated but actually serve as the very mechanisms that bad actors have zeroed in on as a way to potentially invalidate presidential election results,” Manchin said during a Senate Rules Committee hearing on the bill.

“The time to reform the ECA is way past due. Way past due,” Manchin added. “The time for Congress to act is now.”

Collins said the 135-year-old act is “archaic and ambiguous” and reforms are necessary to clarify the vice president serves in a “solely ministerial” role over the counting of Electoral College votes and does not have unilateral power to throw out or change electors.

The House select committee investigating Jan. 6 has laid out evidence that former President Trump and his allies sought to put pressure on former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election results to be in Trump’s favor. A mob of pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol that day in an effort to disrupt Congress’s official count of Electoral College votes, which is overseen by the vice president in what has typically been a largely ceremonial role.

Pence ultimately did not succumb to the pressure, telling Trump that he did not believe he had the sole power to overturn election results.

In addition to clarifying the vice president’s role, the act would also increase the threshold necessary for members of Congress to object to a state’s electors to one-fifth of each chamber — or 87 representatives and 20 senators — rather than one lawmaker each in the Senate and House.

After the 2020 election, 138 representatives and six senators objected to electors from Arizona, and 121 representatives and seven senators objected to the count in Pennsylvania.

“That dark day, enemies of our democracy sought to exploit the provisions of this antiquated law to subvert the results of a free and fair election,” the committee’s chairwoman, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), said. “It’s our job to ensure this never happens again, no matter who’s in charge or what happens.”

The reforms would also ensure Congress has only a single, conclusive slate of electors from each state through an expedited judicial review for presidential and vice presidential candidates and would require Congress to defer to those slates according to state or federal court judgments.

Former President Carter and former White House chief of staff James Baker have both also called for reform to the Electoral Count Act and offered support to Collins and Manchin.

The bill includes 14 co-sponsors: Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

Klobuchar and the committee’s vice chairman, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), advised the group as they were putting together the legislation, and with Blunt’s support, the bill would have enough votes to surpass the 60-vote threshold in the Senate.

But the legislation may also be at odds with some members of the House Jan. 6 select committee such as Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), who have suggested they will unveil their own recommendations “soon.”

Both Collins and Manchin said they expect to pass their legislation before the end of the year, ahead of the 2024 presidential election cycle — and before the GOP can take the House and stall legislation.

Manchin said he would be the first to acknowledge the bill is “not perfect” and may not address all problems with the original Electoral Count Act but that the reforms would be a “tremendous improvement” over the current law.

“We were all there on Jan. 6. That happened. That was for real. It was not a visit by friends from back home. And we have a duty and responsibility to make sure it never happens again,” Manchin told the committee. “The Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Improvement Act of 2022 is something that our country desperately needs, and the correction needs to happen now.”

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