September 22, 2022
Manchin, Collins Announce 22 Senators Now Cosponsoring Bipartisan Electoral Count Act Reform
Washington, DC — Today,
U.S. Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Susan Collins (R-ME) announced the
addition of Senators Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) as cosponsors
of the legislation to reform and modernize the outdated Electoral Count
Act of 1887. The bipartisan Senate bill now has 22 cosponsors and will
receive a markup and be voted on by the Senate Rules Committee on Tuesday,
September 27th.
“We are delighted that bipartisan support continues to grow for
the Senate’s sensible and much-needed reforms to the Electoral Count Act of
1887,” said Senators Manchin and Collins. “Our bill is backed by election law experts and organizations across the ideological spectrum. We
will keep working to increase bipartisan support for our legislation that would
correct the flaws in this archaic and ambiguous law.”
Senators Manchin
and Collins are joined as cosponsors by Senators Rob Portman (R-OH),
Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Lisa
Murkowski (R-AK), Mark Warner (D-VA), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Chris Murphy (D-CT),
Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Todd Young (R-IN), Chris Coons
(D-DE), Ben Sasse (R-NE), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), John
Hickenlooper (D-CO), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Pat
Toomey (R-PA), and Maggie Hassan (D-NH).
On
July 20, 2022, Senators
Manchin and Collins introduced the bipartisan Electoral Count
Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act to update the
outdated Electoral Count Act of 1887. Last month, Senators
Manchin and Collins provided remarks before the
Senate Committee on Rules and Administration on the importance of the
legislation. On
September 14, Congressmen Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) and Fred Upton (MI-6) introduced the House companion to the Senate legislation.
The bill includes the
following provisions:
1) Electoral
Count Reform Act. This section would reform and modernize the
outdated Electoral Count Act of 1887 to ensure that electoral votes tallied by
Congress accurately reflect each state’s vote for President. It would replace ambiguous
provisions of the 19th-century law with clear procedures that maintain
appropriate state and federal roles in selecting the President and Vice
President of the United States as set forth in the U.S. Constitution.
2) Presidential
Transition Improvement Act. This section would help to promote the
orderly transfer of power by providing clear guidelines for when eligible
candidates for President or Vice President may receive federal resources to
support their transition into office.
A
one-pager on the Electoral Count Reform
Act is available here.
A one-pager on the Presidential
Transition Improvement Act is available here.
The full text of the legislation is
available here.
Next Article Previous Article