Legislation handed by the Senate would make clear that the vp’s position in certifying the Electoral College vote is ceremonial. Here, then-Vice President Mike Pence is seen within the House chamber early on Jan. 7, 2021, to complete the work of the Electoral College after a mob loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

conceal caption

toggle caption

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Legislation handed by the Senate would make clear that the vp’s position in certifying the Electoral College vote is ceremonial. Here, then-Vice President Mike Pence is seen within the House chamber early on Jan. 7, 2021, to complete the work of the Electoral College after a mob loyal to President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Lawmakers have mentioned time and again that they need to forestall one other Jan. 6-style assault on the U.S. Capitol from ever occurring once more.

It took virtually two years, however on Thursday, as a part of a authorities spending bundle, the Senate handed the primary federal elections laws to that goal.

The omnibus spending invoice features a part that may reform the Electoral Count Act, a 1887 legislation that governs the counting of Electoral College votes in Congress.

For years, authorized students have anxious the legislation was poorly written and in want of clarification, and former President Donald Trump and his allies targeted the legislation’s ambiguities of their makes an attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

“Imagine that there was a law on the books requiring you to travel by horse and buggy. That is what the Electoral Count Act is like,” Rebecca Green, co-director of the election legislation program on the College of William & Mary, advised NPR this summer season.

In the time after voting led to 2020 and outcomes have been licensed, Trump and his group argued that then-Vice President Mike Pence had the ability to intrude with the counting of electoral votes as a result of the legislation because it at present stands names the vp because the presiding officer over the joint session of Congress the place these votes are counted.

Legal specialists throughout the political spectrum debunked that studying of the legislation, however Trump’s strain marketing campaign nonetheless led to the powder keg that erupted on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when chants of “Hang Mike Pence!” rang by means of the halls of Congress.

The replace handed by the Senate would make clear that the vp’s position within the proceedings is only ceremonial.

Importantly, the measure additionally would elevate the bar for objecting to a state’s slate of electors. As it stands now, it takes only one member of the House and one senator to problem a state’s electors and ship each chambers right into a doubtlessly days-long debate interval, even with out reliable considerations.

The new laws would elevate the edge for an objection to twenty% of the members of every chamber.

The spending invoice now goes to the House, which in September passed a similar electoral reform measure, with 9 Republicans voting with all Democrats in favor.

Legal specialists and lots of lawmakers had mentioned it was crucial to get this certification replace performed earlier than the subsequent Congress, and particularly earlier than the 2024 presidential cycle heats up. A bipartisan group of senators, led by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, spent a lot of 2022 negotiating the changes.

“We’re holding on by a thread,” mentioned Manchin of the laws recently, at an occasion hosted by the National Council on Election Integrity. “By a very, very thin thread of democracy.”