In wake of Jan. 6, Klobuchar committee considers changes to Electoral Count Act

A committee led by U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., is looking to reshape the law covering how the presidential vote is certified as Congress responds to former President Donald Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Congressional Democrats' push to pass extensive voting and elections legislation was met with strong Republican opposition and failed last year. However, there may be a path to reforming what lawmakers and experts described Wednesday as a problematic 1887 law.

"The claim was made that the Electoral Count Act as it exists would allow the vice president to refuse to accept electoral votes that were lawfully cast," Klobuchar said during the hearing. "We watched in horror as a mob stormed the Capitol chanting 'Hang Mike Pence!' and got within 40 feet of the vice president of the United States. We know these claims about the vice president's authority were false."

Much of Wednesday's hearing in the Senate Rules Committee, which Klobuchar chairs, focused on a bill sponsored by GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and cosponsored by eight other Republicans and seven Democrats.

"We have before us an historic opportunity to modernize and strengthen our system of certifying and counting the electoral votes for president and vice president," Collins said.

The bill specifies that the vice president's role in counting electoral votes is essentially "ministerial." That comes after Trump pressured Pence to intervene in the electoral count process on Jan. 6, 2021, as the then-president sought to overturn the election and falsely claimed it was stolen from him. Pence did not go along with Trump's wishes.

The bipartisan bill specifies that any objections, like those from congressional Republicans about the 2020 election and by a group of Democrats after the 2004 presidential election, would need the support of at least one-fifth of each chamber. The bill also focuses on "ensuring that Congress can identify a single, conclusive slate of electors from each state," according to a memo released by Collins' office.

Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, who objected to certifying Democratic President Joe Biden's victories in two swing states, said during the hearing that there is "a large percentage of Americans who still have deep doubts about the veracity of the election."

"And I think it would have behooved both parties to have a serious, substantive examination on the merits of the facts of those claims," Cruz said.

Yet some GOP lawmakers voiced during Wednesday's hearing that passing changes soon is critical.

"This is clearly something that we shouldn't let carry over into another election cycle," said Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, the leading Republican on the rules committee.

While Klobuchar is not a formal cosponsor of the bipartisan bill introduced by Collins last month, she has called for changing current law. Klobuchar said in a July statement that months earlier she had shared a draft of her own with the bipartisan group, adding in a follow-up interview after Wednesday's hearing that she's "highly supportive of the bill" and the sponsors' work. "I'm charged with shepherding the bill through the Senate and working with the House on any changes they want so we get it done," she said.

Sen. Tina Smith, a fellow Minnesota Democrat who also has not signed on as a cosponsor, said in a statement that "the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022 takes important steps towards addressing the vulnerabilities in our current system."