A bipartisan bill that would make changes to how members of Congress could object to electoral will be included in the omnibus spending bill lawmakers need to approve in the coming days, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Monday night.
The Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act, sponsored by Collins and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), would amend the Electoral Count Act of 1887 and reaffirm that the vice president has only a ministerial role at the joint session of Congress where electoral college votes are counted. The measure would also raise the threshold necessary for members of Congress to object to a state’s electors.
Collins said that the she was “delighted” the electoral count reform bill would be included in the longer-term government spending bill, and that it was “very significant.”
The bill was driven by the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters seeking to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s win. Lawmakers have warned a similar effort to disrupt future electoral counts could happen without changes to the process.
Though the Senate has not yet voted on the bill, both Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) came out in support of the legislation in September.
“Our bipartisan bill is backed by election law experts and organizations across the ideological spectrum and a broad cross section of Senators from both parties,” Collins and Manchin said in a joint statement at the time. “We will keep working to increase support for our legislation that would correct the flaws in this archaic and ambiguous law.”
Around the same time, the House passed a similar bill that aimed to stop future presidents from trying to overturn election results through Congress, similarly citing the Jan. 6 insurrection.
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McConnell has called the House bill a “non-starter” because of its lack of support from GOP lawmakers.
“It’s clear that only a bipartisan compromise originating in the Senate can actually become law,” he said in September. “One party going it alone would be a non-starter. In my view, the House bill is a non-starter. We have one shot to get this right.”