Protect the Vote,  Protecting Democracy

The Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022

September 16, 2022 /

Ready to participate in our Electoral Count Act call to action? Check it out here!

The Electoral Count Act of 1887 (ECA) is a confusing law with outdated language that was designed to govern how electoral votes are counted following a presidential election. Last year, we wrote about the historical context of this law and why it is so important to see it updated as soon as possible. Fortunately, after a lot of hard work by many advocacy groups and organizations, a bipartisan group of senators collaborated to propose S.4573 – Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022. This bill was introduced by Republican Senator Susan Collins on July 20, 2022. It currently has 17 cosponsors, including nine Republicans and eight Democrats. 

What’s in the bill?

S.4573 consists of two sections: the Electoral Count Reform Act (ECRA) — which is our focus — and the Presidential Transition Improvement Act. 

The ECRA contains a number of important provisions that will help protect our electoral processes during the vulnerable time following a presidential election. A great explainer about the critical reforms in the ECRA can be found here from Protect Democracy. Some of these necessary changes include:

  1. Clarifying that the vice president only has an administrative role in counting electoral votes. 
    • This ensures that a vice president cannot unilaterally dismiss a state’s certified election results and will help protect him/her from any undue pressure to do so. 
  2. Removing the ambiguous “failed election” provision in the current ECA.
    • This will help prevent state legislatures from overriding their state’s popular vote.
  3. Raising the threshold of how many members of Congress are required to object to a state’s electors.
    • Currently, only one member of each the House and the Senate must object to a state’s slate of electors to be considered. The ECRA would raise the threshold to one-fifth of both the House and the Senate.
  4. Identifying each state’s governor as the elected official in charge of certifying the slate of electors for their state.
    • This reform would help to avoid the possibility of having two conflicting slates of electors from a state and the uncertainty of which slate is official. It also clarifies that the governor must certify electors in compliance with laws enacted before Election Day.
  5. Providing a clear judicial review process that can quickly resolve questions about the outcome.
    • If you’re interested in the technical details of this process, consider reading more here.

The Presidential Transition Improvement Act would also provide stability following a presidential election by implementing the following changes:

  1. Allowing more than one presidential and vice presidential candidate to receive transition funding if there is a reasonable dispute regarding the outcome of an election.
    • This change would facilitate an organized transfer of power and protect our national security so that once a clear winner is determined, the transition of the incoming presidential administration will not have been significantly delayed.
  2. Establishing clear reporting requirements pertaining to the status of the transition and the federal resources provided to each candidate in the case of a contested election.

For additional details, check out this one-pager on the Presidential Transition Improvement Act published by Senator Collins’ office. 

Where does it go from here?

This bill will now go to markup in the Senate Rules Committee, which means senators on this committee have the opportunity to propose, debate, and vote on amendments to the introduced bill. Following this process, a final committee vote will take place to advance the bill to the Senate floor for further deliberation. Senators suggest it is most likely to come up for a vote during the lame duck session, which refers to the session of Congress that meets following the midterm elections.