How updating a 135-year-old law could help save US democracy

One of America’s last-ditch defenses against attempts to subvert presidential elections is a rickety 135-year-old antique.

This ancient structure – an 1887 law called the Electoral Count Act – governs the official counting of Electoral College votes and the naming of the new president-elect. But it’s poorly written and vague in important spots. Then-President Donald Trump tested its strength with his post-vote efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s legitimate victory.

Now key members of Congress from both parties are at work on a serious effort to reinforce and perhaps expand the law. Sen. Joe Manchin, the centrist West Virginia Democrat whose opposition blocked broad voting rights legislation earlier this year, says he backs electoral count reform and that it will “absolutely” attract enough GOP support to pass the Senate.

Mr. Trump’s attempts to exploit Electoral Count Act “ambiguities” were “what caused the insurrection” at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Senator Manchin said in a broadcast interview last week.