October 8, 2022
Tomorrow, the midterm election will be 30 days away.
At the same time, a very important Republican leader endorsed a bill that would make it more difficult to overturn election results when it comes to Presidential elections. That means this legislation could have very good chance of becoming law.
Before I tell you about who that Republican is and what this bill is about…I want to thank my TikTok subscribers for voting for this story for me to cover as a bonus this week. If you want to vote you can subscribe to my TikTok page only during my live event.
The bill I’m talking about is technically two bills. Presidential Transition Improvement Act and the Electoral Count Reform Act. These are bipartisan bills in the senate and as of last week were “proudly supported” by Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
So what would these bills do?
Overall they would reform the Electoral Count Act of 1887. That’s the law that governs how Congress certifies the election. I know this is going way back – but I actually told you all about how it works in this two-part series posted in December of 2020.
These new bills would do several things include — provide clear guidelines for the transfer of power between election day and inauguration and gives guidance on what should happen if neither candidate concedes. It firmly clarifies the Vice President’s role in certifying the election on January 6th is purely ceremonial. He or she has no power to reject or replace slates of electors. It also says under no circumstances will congress accept slates of electors unless they come from the governor. No “alternate slates” will be allowed. It strikes a provision of an archaic 1845 law that could be used by state legislatures to override the popular vote in their states by declaring a “failed election”. And most interestingly, it would raise the bar for members of Congress to formally object to a state’s slate of electors. Instead of only needing one congressperson and one senator to team up to formally object to a state’s slate of electors -as it is now — this change would require one-fifth of the members in the house and one-fifth of the members in the senate on board to officially object to a state’s slate of electors.
I told you these bills were bipartisan and I’m not kidding they have as many republican cosponsors as democrat cosponsors — and with McConnel now on board the Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is talking about getting these bills on the floor for a vote right after the midterms.
