Murphy makes case for presidential election reform, "stopping another January 6th"

Aug. 1—HARTFORD — At a Capitol news conference Monday, Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy outlined a bill he helped write that is designed to prevent results of the presidential election from being overturned.

The Electoral Count Act, which Murphy and a bipartisan group of 16 senators support, is meant to close the possible legal loopholes that former President Donald Trump and his supporters attempted to exploit in an effort to overturn the 2020 election.

"We need to be in the business of stopping another January 6th," he said.

Murphy was joined Monday by Deputy Secretary of the State Scott Bates, a Democrat from Stonington, at the Legislative Office Building for the news conference.

Murphy said the Electoral Count Act of 1887 that ensures electoral votes counted by Congress correctly reflect a state's vote for president "is incomplete, it's ambiguous, and its weakness was part of the reason why Donald Trump thought he could steal the election in 2020."

Under the 1887 legislation, any single senator can prompt a debate and a vote on throwing out a specific state's electors' slate. Murphy and his colleagues have pointed to the effort by Republican Senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas to challenge Arizona's and Pennsylvania's electors for the 2020 election as an example of why the new law is needed.

Under the new legislation, 20% of the Senate and 20% of the House must agree on such a debate before it can occur.

The vice president's role is changed under the would-be legislation as well. Trump's team believed that then-Vice President Mike Pence had the power to refuse to count slates of electors, and the existing law is somewhat unclear about the vice president's role.

"Our reform law makes it crystal clear that the vice president's role is simply ceremonial," Murphy said.

Murphy said the legislation would thwart efforts by Trump allies on a state level who are planning to send slates of electors who support Trump regardless of whether Trump wins that state.

"We clean up one ambiguous part of the law that Trump relied on which suggests state legislatures can appoint their own electors after the election if they deem fraud in the election," Murphy said.

Bates said elections in Connecticut in 2020 were "safe, secure and without incident."

"It's so important to consider this kind of legislation because at the national level we've seen there's a vulnerability in the system," Bates said. "A few powerful people tried to maneuver and use strange legal arguments to subvert and try to deny democracy in our country."

Murphy characterized the bill as a bipartisan process convened by Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins and West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin. He said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, has signaled his support for the effort as well.

While members of both parties are unhappy with the bill — Trump hardliners "who don't want any of these new barriers erected to the stealing of the vote," and Democrats who think the reforms should go farther — Murphy stood by the proposal, calling it "the sweet spot."

Murphy said he expects a vote on the legislation shortly after the November election, and absolutely before the new House and Senate take their seats in January, since it's possible both chambers will come under Republican control.

A believer in the popular vote, Murphy said he is also in favor of getting rid of the Electoral College entirely, but that would require a constitutional change, and there isn't enough time to amend the Constitution between now and 2024.

Murphy said he is also in favor of the National Popular Vote Compact, an effort years in the making that has yet to come to fruition that would compel states to award their electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate won the popular vote.

s.spinella@theday.com