Recognition for Electoral Count Act Reform Principles
A Washington Post article by Richard L. Hasen discusses presidential elections and potential revisions to the Electoral Count Act (ECA). In the piece, Hasen mentions proposals for reform presented in the Principles for ECA Reform, published in April 2022:
There’s much that can be done to fix those problems, as a diverse group of prominent legal scholars, convened by the American Law Institute and including former Obama White House counsel Bob Bauer and former Trump White House counsel Donald McGahn, has suggested. To begin with, Congress can revise the Electoral Count Act to create a more robust role for federal courts in making sure that states follow their own rules for picking the winner of their electoral college votes. Courts are not perfect, but they stood strong in 2020 against more than 60 attempts by Trump and his allies to overturn election results, and they are the best hope to deal fairly with any future conflict over the rightful winner of a state’s electoral college votes.
At the invitation of the ALI, the Principles for ECA Reform brought together a group with deep and varied experience in law and government. Despite contrasting political and ideological beliefs, the group united around the belief that Congress should reform the ECA before the 2024 presidential election. The group’s general principles to guide ECA reform, as well as specific proposals as to what ECA reform should seek to accomplish, are available here.
A bipartisan group of senators working on ECA reform welcomed input by the group gathered by the ALI. An article published by CBS News indicates that the senators have reached a general agreement and are working on legislative text.
