December 22, 2022

Manchin, Collins Announce Senate Passage of ECA Reform

Washington, DC – U.S. Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Susan Collins (R-ME) announced today that the Senate’s legislation to reform and modernize the outdated Electoral Count Act of 1887 advanced today as part of the Fiscal Year 2023 Omnibus Appropriations bill. The Senate passed the omnibus by a vote of 68-29. The bill will now be passed by the House before being signed into law.
 
The bipartisan legislation has 39 Senate cosponsors, including Senate Leaders Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senate Rules Committee Chairman Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Ranking Member Roy Blunt (R-MO).
 
“The Senate’s ECA reform effort is the result of nearly a year of bipartisan negotiation, including numerous meetings and debates among our colleagues as well as conversations with a wide variety of election experts and legal scholars,” said Senators Manchin and Collins. “Our bipartisan group worked tirelessly to draft this legislation that fixes the flaws of the archaic and ambiguous Electoral Count Act of 1887 and establishes clear guidelines for our system of certifying and counting electoral votes for President and Vice President.  We are pleased that our legislation has passed the Senate and are grateful to have the support of so many of our colleagues.  We look forward to seeing this bill signed into law.”
 
In addition to Senators Manchin and Collins, the core group of negotiators include: 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) and Ben Sasse (R-NE). 
 
The additional cosponsors include: Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Pat Toomey (R-PA), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Roy Blunt (R-MO), John Thune (R-SD), John Cornyn (R-TX), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Tom Carper (D-DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Richard Burr (R-NC), Gary Peters (D-MI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Angus King (I-ME) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV).
 
The Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act 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 timeline of Senators Manchin’s work to reform the Electoral Count Act of 1887:
 
  • On December 20, 2022, Senators Manchin and Collins announced their Electoral Count Act of 1887 will be included in the Fiscal Year 2023 Omnibus Appropriations bill.
  • On September 30, 2022, Senators Manchin and Collins announced their bipartisan Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act now has 32 cosponsors in the Senate.
  • On September 28, 2022, Senator Manchin applauded the 14-1 vote in the Senate Rules Committee to advance the bipartisan Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act.
  • On September 22, 2022, Senators Manchin and Collins announced the addition of two more Senators as cosponsors of the legislation to reform and modernize the outdated Electoral Count Act of 1887, bringing the total to 22 cosponsors.
  • On September 21, 2022, Senator Manchin announced the bipartisan Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act had secured 10 Democrat and 10 Republican cosponsors in the Senate.
  • On August 3, 2022, Senator Manchin spoke before the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration on the importance of the legislation.
  • On July 20, 2022, Senator Manchin introduced the bipartisan Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act to update the outdated Electoral Count Act of 1887.
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.