America may be one election away from losing its democracy. Democracy’s fate seems to hinge on a little known act, the Electoral Count Act of 1887. Now is the time for Congress to bring the Electoral Count Act into this century. There are plenty of state bills across the country making it harder to vote in the United States. The Electoral Count Act deals with the vote count on the back end and sets the rules for whether those votes will actually be counted.
The 1887 act is a federal law establishing procedures to abide by constitutional provisions for the counting of electoral votes following a presidential election.
The 2020 election was the first in America’s history to not yield a peaceful transfer of power. That failure is rooted in two loopholes contained in the 1887 law — loopholes that must be closed before another presidential election occurs. First, the act enables state legislatures to ignore the popular vote and choose an alternative slate of electors in the case of an undefined failed election. It gives power to politicians, not voters, to decide when an election’s results must be disqualified or reworked. The dangers of handing such wide-ranging powers to politicians should now be obvious.
