Washington Post: This law helped the Capitol riot happen. So why does nobody want to change it?
Washington Post: This law helped the Capitol riot happen. So why does nobody want to change it?
In this edition: One weird trick to prevent another Jan. 6, the GOP’s adjustments to Trump’s election obsession, and two elections in New York go into a very strange overtime.
“Election Day” is so passe, and this is The Trailer.
Since November 2020, there’s been a race by states to change election laws, and a national campaign for a liberal reform package, the For the People Act. But until very recently, there’s been almost no debate about the Electoral Count Act, the convoluted and potentially unconstitutional 1887 law that sets deadlines for the certification process and allows members of Congress to challenge vote totals for any reason. …
Democrats and anti-Trump conservatives have grown increasingly worried about that attitude. In selling their For the People Act, the president’s party has pointed out that GOP state officials who certified Biden’s wins have been purged or subjected to primary challenges; this, they say, is why the federal government needs to step in.
But the Electoral Count Act isn’t really part of the discussion. There was no serious talk of adding it to the For the People Act, which was first introduced by Democrats two years ago. The law is so confusing, and so rarely relevant, that it never emerged as a target.
“Updating the Electoral Count Act would be a great addition to that bill,” said Aaron Scherb, the director of legislative affairs at Common Cause, a good-government group instrumental in pushing the For the People Act. “Because presidential elections only occur every four years, there’s kind of a natural ebb and flow of what people pay attention to or what problems rise up.”