Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said he would “proudly support” legislation to overhaul rules for certifying presidential elections.
McConnell’s endorsement would bolster a bipartisan effort to revise a 19th-century law and avoid any repeat of the deadly January 6, 2021 insurrection on the Capitol. It gives the legislation a major boost as its bipartisan sponsors continue to push to pass the bill before the year ends, and most importantly, before the next election cycle.
The legislation would clarify and expand parts of the 1887 Electoral Count Act. This act, together with the constitution, governs how states and Congress certify electors and declare presidential winners.
The changes in the certification process are in response to unsuccessful efforts by former president Donald Trump and his allies to exploit loopholes in the law and overturn his 2020 defeat by Joe Biden.
McConnell said he would back the bill as long as a bipartisan agreement on the language was not significantly changed.
“Congress’s process for counting the presidential electors’ votes was written 135 years ago,” McConnell said. “The chaos that came to a head on January 6 of last year certainly underscored the need for an update.”
After the 2020 presidential election was announced for Biden, a total of 147 Republicans in the House and Senate objected to the results in key states that were won by Biden.
That is a massive amount of Republican congressmen. In the 2016 election and the 2000 and 2004 elections, only a handful of Democrats objected to Donald Trump and George W Bush’s victories.
The bipartisan sponsors want to ensure the bill is passed before the next presidential election, as Trump is still continuing to lie about election fraud and consider another run for the White House.
The House has passed a more expansive bill overhauling electoral rules but it has far less Republican support.
Be the first to comment