A bipartisan group of senators reportedly is close to agreement on recommending reforms to a flawed, archaic law that former President Donald Trump abused in his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. The Electoral Count Act of 1887 gives the vice president a ceremonial role in approving state vote counts, but it is worded vaguely enough that Trump claimed, outrageously, that it provided Vice President Mike Pence authority to unilaterally throw out Joe Biden’s victory.
Responsible leaders in both parties understand the urgency of fixing that and other problematic language in the Electoral Count Act now, before a Republican takeover of Congress makes it impossible to move any legislation on this issue. But some Democrats are holding up a deal because they want to roll valid but more contentious voting-rights issues into it. They’re playing a dangerous game. They should accept this half loaf immediately, while they still can.
The act was written in response to the contested presidential election of 1876, in which several states sent competing slates of electors to Washington. The law was an attempt to clarify how Congress should decide such disputes. Unfortunately, its muddled language further confused the issue, while creating an opening that could allow bad actors to corrupt the process. Among those is a provision that allows one representative and one senator to trigger the process of challenging states’ election results. It was this provision that Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., exploited to turn what should’ve been the routine election certification into a showdown that ended with a mob sacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
