Reps. Liz Cheney & Zoe Lofgren Propose Electoral Count Act Reform

Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) and Zoe Lofgren (D-California) introduced a bill on Monday in a bipartisan effort to prevent anything like the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack from happening again.

“Our proposal is intended to preserve the rule of law for all future presidential elections by ensuring that self-interested politicians cannot steal from the people the guarantee that our government derives its power from the consent of the governed,” Cheney and Lofgren wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, which was published on Sunday. “We look forward to working with our colleagues in the House and the Senate toward this goal.”

The bill will head to the floor as soon as Wednesday.

If passed, the proposed legislation will clarify the Vice President’s role in the counting of electoral votes. Former President Donald Trump and his allies sought to exploit then-Vice President Mike Pence‘s role, asking him to reject certain electors. The bill would make clear that the vice president’s role does not include rejecting electors, delaying the count or having a say on procedural rulings.

“The 12th Amendment is straightforward; it simply requires counting,” Cheney and Lofgren wrote.

The legislation would also, increase the threshold needed to object to elections from just one member to one-third of the House and one-third of the Senate.

The bill also specifies who can object to a state’s certification. Currently, anyone can do that, but if the House bill is passed, only the candidates for president and vice president will be able to.

Cheney and Lofgren’s bill is more restrictive than the Senate’s proposed reform of the Electoral Count Act. The Senate’s version, for example, only requires one-fifth of each chamber to bring a vote for the objection of electors.