The proposal, led by Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, would make clear that a vice president’s role in counting those votes is merely ceremonial. And it would make it harder for members of Congress to challenge a state’s presidential results by requiring one-fifth of the House and Senate to file objections — instead of just one House member and one senator. The bill, sponsored by nine Republicans and seven Democrats, also designates state governors, unless otherwise specified in law or the constitution in effect on Election Day, as officials responsible for certifying presidential electors. This is an attempt to prevent moves by party operatives to propose alternative lists of electors if they do not like the results of the election, and eliminates the opening for Congress to choose between the competing frameworks. (As you’ll recall, Trump allies falsely called electors in several key states as part of an effort to flip the Electoral College.) A separate Senate bill, sponsored by five Republicans and seven Democrats, seeks to combat ongoing threats to election administration by increasing federal penalties for anyone who threatens or intimidates election officials or tampers with election systems.
Early Reaction
A group of five election law professors recently hailed the proposed election law overhaul as a “significant improvement” on the outdated law. But a coalition of leading civil rights groups issued a statement over the weekend arguing that the proposal “does not go far enough to protect our democracy in this the fragile moment.” They want Congress to address what they call “growing racial discrimination in voting,” following court rulings that have eroded the validity of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. (Repeated efforts by Senate Democrats to expand voting, however, have failed in the face of Republican opposition and the reluctance of moderate Democrats to change Senate rules.) Moreover, the Senate version is unlikely to be the final word. Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican who serves as vice chair of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Capitol Hill, and California Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat on the panel, say the panel will have its own recommendations in support of the Election Counting Act.
Will election naysayers gain ground in more states?
Next week marks the start of a new round of primaries across the country, and upcoming editions of the CITIZEN newsletter will offer guides from CNN’s campaign team to the key races to watch each week. Perhaps the biggest test of whether election denial has taken firm root among the Republican faithful will come in Arizona’s Aug. 2 primary. Trump has endorsed several candidates in the Grand Canyon State who have accepted his baseless claims that widespread voter fraud led to his 2020 defeat, including Republican gubernatorial candidates Cary Lake, Secretary of State Mark Finchem and venture capitalist Blake Masters. who is running against Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly in the general election. (As CNN’s Alex Rogers recently reported, Masters has even begun to question whether the 2022 election will be legal as he works to shore up his credibility among Trump supporters.) And said Karrin Taylor Robson, the Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate backed by Pence CNN’s Brianna Keilar this week that she doesn’t think the 2020 election was fair for Trump and wouldn’t say she accepts the 2020 results. Locally in Arizona, meanwhile, a four-way race for a seat on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors features candidates who have promoted election conspiracy theories. One, Republican Thayer Verschoor, a former state senator who served in the Trump administration, says on his campaign website that the 2020 election “was corrupt and a victory was stolen” from the former President. The Arizona Republic’s Sasha Hupka recently noted that the outcome of this contest in Arizona’s most populous county — home to Phoenix — could change the united front the Maricopa board has consistently presented in defense of integrity. of President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory. (Electoral conspiracies about the 2020 election fueled state Republicans The Senate will order a wide-ranging investigation into Maricopa ballots. It became the focus of national jokes last year as reviewers pursued wild conspiracy theories , such as the hunt for bamboo signs, based on the claim that 40,000 ballots had arrived from Asia. In the end, the recount concluded that Biden had indeed won the county by a greater margin than the official tally.) Biden captured Arizona by nearly 10,500 votes out of 3 million voters statewide. Whoever wins the Maricopa seat will serve until January 2025 and help oversee the county’s 2024 presidential election.
You must read
These stories in Reuters and the New York Times about new moves by conservative sheriffs’ organizations to investigate the conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was rigged against Trump. As Reuters notes, election officials fear partisan investigations into baseless allegations of voter fraud will undermine public confidence in elections. CNN’s story on the busy month ahead of fact-finding and decision-making for the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. Cheney, the No. 2 lawmaker on the panel, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” over the weekend that the panel could “consider a subpoena” for Virginia “Ginny” Thomas, a conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. This story by CNN’s Eric Bradner on how Arizona’s GOP primary turned into a proxy war between Trump and his former vice president.
