Three senators unveiled a proposal Tuesday to reform the Electoral Count Act.
The bill includes a clarification that notes the vice president's role in overseeing the official counting of the Electoral College vote is purely ceremonial, according to The Hill.
The reforms to the 1887 Electoral Count Act were introduced by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, who caucuses with the Democrats.
The proposal came after former President Donald Trump claimed on Sunday that former Vice President Mike Pence could have sent electoral votes from certain states back to their legislatures, thereby overturning the 2020 presidential election results.
"If the Vice President (Mike Pence) had 'absolutely no right' to change the Presidential Election results in the Senate, despite fraud and many other irregularities, how come the Democrats and RINO Republicans, like Wacky Susan Collins, are desperately trying to pass legislation that will not allow the Vice President to change the results of the election?" Trump said in a statement.
Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., also are working on their own reforms to the Electoral Count Act, The Hill noted.
Meanwhile, King, Durbin, and Klobuchar said the act must be changed.
"Experts across the political spectrum agree that the Electoral Count Act of 1887 needs to be updated to reflect the current realities and threats facing the United States and our election process," they said in a statement.
"In response, as leaders on the Senate Rules Committee with jurisdiction over federal elections and members of Senate Democratic leadership, we have been working with legal experts and election law scholars to develop legislation that would modernize the framework of the Electoral Count Act of 1887."
According to the senators, their proposal would:
- Ensure that state legislatures cannot appoint electors after Election Day in an effort to overturn their state’s election results.
- Provide limited judicial review to ensure that the electors, appointed by a state, reflect the popular vote results in the state.
- Clarify that the vice president has no power to reject a state’s electors.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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