WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – House lawmakers passed a bill on Wednesday to reform the Electoral Count Act in hopes of preventing another Jan. 6.
If the Senate passes it too, the decades-old Electoral Count Act could get a major makeover. The current act sets the rules about how presidential votes in the electoral college are counted and certified.
“We must update and modernize it to make it work,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said.
The move is a direct response to former President Donald Trump’s efforts to change the outcome of the 2020 election.
“People who don’t like the results of an election feel empowered to lie and reject those results, sometimes violently,” Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said.
Advocates say the legislation would make it harder to change or throw out state’s electoral votes.
“Ensuring that strategic bad-faith actors are unable to exploit procedural loopholes,” Raskin said.
The bill has some bipartisan support in the House and the Senate, but many Republicans say they won’t vote for it.
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., is one of the lawmakers against it.
“This is nothing more than an attack on President Trump and the 2020 election,” Reschenthaler said.
He says instead of pushing this bill, lawmakers should focus on solutions for issues like inflation or immigration.
“Yet another partisan political show while American people are at home suffering the consequences of their failed agenda,” Reschenthaler said.
But supporters of the legislation insist it is critical to ensure our government can function.
“Vote like the future of our democracy depends on this bill because it does,” McGovern said.
With former President Trump weighing another presidential run, supporters of the bill want to get it passed before the 2024 presidential election.
