Manchin Urges Senate To Move Forward With Bipartisan Electoral Count Bill

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) is at the forefront of a group pushing for a bipartisan deal to reform the 1887 Electoral Count Act.

The centrist senator looks to outline a framework as soon as this week, but the number of Republicans who are on board think Manchin’s timeline is too ambitious.

Members of the Senate began discussing Electoral Count Act reform late last month. The 135-year-old law outlines how votes should be counted. The bipartisan group leading talks on reform are looking for ways to make it more difficult to discard certified electoral votes when Congress comes together to count them, in light of last year’s Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

The evenly split Senate has struggled to get partisan issues passed. Even though the Democrats have the tie-breaker with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Republicans with the help of Manchin and Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona) on some issues have stalled President Joe Biden‘s Build Back Better trillion-dollar spending bill and voting rights acts.

It will be difficult to pass anything through the Senate with the split, especially as midterms inch closer and Republicans’ incentive to cooperate decreases.

Manchin hopes for an agreement this week.