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I\u2019ll be damned. I didn\u2019t think they had it in \u2019em.<\/p>\n
A bipartisan group of senators led by Susan Collins and Joe Manchin has spent the better part of a year working on reforming the Electoral Count Act. That\u2019s the 19th-century federal law that Trump tried to exploit on January 6, first by convincing Republicans in Congress to object to certifying the results in certain swing states and then by trying to convince Mike Pence to refuse to accept \u201cdisputed\u201d electoral votes, which would have sent the election to the House. Or Pence could have accepted pro-Trump electors as the legitimate electors from their state, never mind that no state won by Biden recognized pro-Trump electors as legitimate in any way.<\/p>\n
The Senate group, having nearly been murdered the last time a bunch of goons misunderstood the statute, has been working to clarify it so that there\u2019s no ambiguity in 2024. But they\u2019re on a hard deadline that\u2019s fast approaching, as everyone understands that a Republican-led House will never agree to pass ECA reform and thereby deprive Trump of a chance to overturn some future election he loses.<\/p>\n
In late July the group announced that it finally had a deal<\/a> on a package that would be split into two bills. The first bill would contain the guts of the reforms, fixing the ECA to make clear that, among other things, the VP can\u2019t refuse to accept electoral votes and raising the numerical threshold in the House and Senate for members to object to certifying a state\u2019s electoral votes. The second bill<\/a> would increase penalties for anyone who threatens an election worker. The second bill drew only five Republican co-sponsors, indicating it might not get the 60 votes needed to beat a filibuster. But the first bill drew nine \u2014 Collins, Murkowski, Romney, Portman, Sasse, Tillis, Capito, Young, and Graham. Assuming all 50 Democrats also support it, that would leave Schumer at 59. Verrrry close. But no cigar.<\/p>\n According to Politico, they just got the cigar.<\/p>\n Sen. Chuck Grassley is the 10th GOP co-sponsor of the Senate’s bipartisan Electoral Count Act reform bill, his office confirms. If all Dems in favor, that gives it a filibuster-proof Senate majority<\/p>\n Collins: “I’m excited about that. And I think there is other Republican support”<\/p>\n \u2014 Burgess Everett (@burgessev) September 1, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n It didn\u2019t make news at the time but Grassley told local media in Iowa a month ago that he was inclined to support the legislation<\/a>:<\/p>\n The legislation would clarify that the vice president\u2019s role in presiding over the counting of electoral votes is purely ceremonial, ensuring that the vice president would not have the power to unilaterally reject or accept electoral votes\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know what the\u2026 law specifically says on this subject,\u201d he said. \u201cIt probably doesn\u2019t say anything, and then people thought well, maybe the vice president has some discretion. He should not have had this discretion ever. And this law will make it clear that he won\u2019t have that discretion.\u201d<\/p>\n Grassley said he also supports a provision that would raise the threshold for objecting to electors in Congress. It would require one-fifth of the House and one-fifth of the Senate to bring an objection, a much higher bar than the current law, which allows one member of the House and one member of the Senate to bring an objection.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is going to make those challenges much more legitimate if there\u2019s a reason for having them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Grassley has special reason to appreciate ECA reform. During the run-up to January 6, Rudy Giuliani\u2019s legal team evidently began to doubt that Pence would do Trump\u2019s bidding by rejecting the electoral votes from swing states won by Biden. One lawyer who was part of Giuliani\u2019s team proposed<\/a> having Pence recuse himself due to a conflict of interest since he was, after all, on the ballot in the election being certified. If Pence had done that, the president pro tem of the Senate would presided on January 6 and \u201cwould lead the count but refuse to accept any electors in the states Trump was contesting\u201d under the Team Rudy plan. The president pro tem at the time was, of course, Chuck Grassley.<\/p>\n\n
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