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Democrats should take this offer

Some Republican senators appear to be offering to support legislation which would clarify that vice presidents have no power to reject states’ electoral votes, and provide federal protections for election workers.

This isn’t as expansive as the Democratic voting rights bill that Republicans blocked with their filibuster to block, but Democrats should take this deal, because it’s vastly better than nothing.

“A bipartisan group of senators is plowing forward with negotiations … on reforming the 1887 Electoral Count Act,” The Hill reported on Monday, February 1, 2022 (read story here). The group of 16 senators (see list here) is led by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Susan Collins (R-ME), and support from both could prove critical to passing legislation reinforcing democracy in the Senate.

The 1887 law has drafting flaws making it potentially ambiguous. “As part of their discussions, senators are discussing making clear that the role of the vice president in the formal counting of the Electoral College results is ceremonial” to head off any future efforts to pressure a vice president to throw out election results, The Hill said, adding, “They are also looking at making it a federal crime to threaten poll workers or election officials.”

Not mentioned in these stories is whether a bill that emerges from these discussions would prevent state legislatures from overruling the voters of their states and choosing their own slates of electors. That’s an essential piece of protection for individual voting rights, but may already be covered by the existing federal law.

In any event, one of the proposals under discussion by the group would make it harder to challenge a state’s electors in the House and Senate. That, too, is important in terms of preventing the kind of assault on democracy attempted by Trump and his sycophants in 2020.

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