Bipartisan Group of Senators Seeks to Reform Electoral Count Act

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FILE - Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, speaks during hearing on the fiscal year 2023 budget for the FBI in Washington, May 25, 2022. A bipartisan group of senators, including Collins, released proposed changes July 20, to the Electoral Count Act, the post-Civil War-era law for certifying presidential elections that came under intense scrutiny after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and Donald Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election. (Ting Shen/Pool Photo via AP, File)
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A bipartisan group of 16 senators introduced a bill to rewrite the Electoral Count Act of 1887. The new bill would ensure every state correctly certifies election results by creating new court processes to stop fraud if a state government attempts to ignore the will of voters by sending more than one set of results or not at all. 

In addition, it would make it harder for members of Congress to object to the certified results submitted by a state. Right now, it only takes one member with a conspiracy theory to force a vote. The new threshold would be 20% of House and Senate members.

States also would not be able to change the rules of how electors are chosen after an election is completed. And the bill makes clear the vice president’s role is ceremonial.

In a statement, Senator Susan Collins called these “common sense reforms.”


Click play to listen to the report from AURN White House Correspondent Ebony McMorris. For more news, follow @E_N_McMorris & @aurnonline.

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