Electoral Count Act Reform, at Last

As Congress rushes to vote on a 4,155-page spending bill that Members will never read, one piece of good news is that the omnibus contains a revision of the Electoral Count Act (ECA). But the moment shouldn’t pass without noting that the Senate is acting in a way that lets individual Members dodge accountability for their vote.

The case for reforming the 1887 law has been clear since Jan. 6, 2021, when it became the excuse for Donald Trump to ask Vice President Mike Pence to reject or delay counting the Electoral College votes that would make Joe Biden President. Democrats used it as an opening for complaints about election results after 2000, 2004 and 2016. Democrats in control of Congress could have made reform a priority the last two years, but they wanted to focus on forcing every state to adopt California-like voting laws.