This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.
If the stars align, Congress could soon pass a much-needed overhaul of the Electoral Count Act (ECA), the 19th-century law governing presidential electoral-vote counting, whose ambiguities helped spawn chaos on January 6th. In pushing to reform the ECA, a bipartisan group of senators is acknowledging a dangerous new reality: that any ambiguity in election law, any hint of an opening, could be exploited in this perilous era for democracy.
“Declaring Who Wins Elections Is Not A Job For Partisans”
Never met such a person and wouldn’t trust them if they claimed to be nonpartisan, since everyone is partisan, whether they admit or act it or not. Plus, it’s utopian to believe that party or issue interested people won’t be involved in running elections at whatever level. What one hopes for are election officials that can put aside their partisanship beyond the belief in fair, honest, inclusive elections, vote counts and judgments, and live with the results.
If the stars align, Congress could soon pass a much-needed overhaul%20Electoral%20Count%20Reform%20Act,each%20state’s%20vote%20for%20President.) of the Electoral Count Act (ECA), the 19th-century law governing presidential electoral-vote counting, whose ambiguities helped spawn chaos on January 6th.
I suspect this would be among the items on the agenda, should the Dems win control in Congress.
If we don’t take steps to reduce the role of partisans in certification and ensure better understanding of the process, the next January 6 might not happen in Washington, but instead in counties and state capitals across the country.
I suspect this will even be a problem in Roevember. Not everywhere, yet, but many of the positions that would control these offices in 2024 are being voted on in two months.
Michigan is set up to never certify another election ever.
The State Election Board that certifies elections is by law required to consist of two members from each of the two major parties. In 2020, one Republican refused to deny the outcome of the 2020 election, so the state did certify. That person was promptly removed from the election board and replaced.
We’re already seeing the impact of this partisan dirty dealing as the 2 Rs on the board successfully deadlocked certification of two initiatives – one a voting rights initiative. If the state supreme court does not force certification within the next 2 days, these two initiatives will not appear on the November ballot
Everybody is partisan to an extent. Not everybody is honest or ethical.
I could go along with saying that those who have the power to declare who wins elections should at least believe in democracy and should not declare who the winner is before the election even takes place. Nor should they be somebody who has preemptively announced they’ll refuse to certify any result not in favor of ‘their’ candidate.
That’s just common sense, but not for republicans it seems.
It may not be a job for partisans but it’s been a wet dream of theirs forever. And now…using the inch by inch method ( compromise…advance…compromise…advance etc ) they’ve wet the sheets.
There is no perfect impartiality … but we are now seeing such perversion of objectivity that it really verges on criminal fraud and cheating.
They have distorted the essential intent of “certification” into being used as a form of tyrannical “veto power” and a means of “election nullification” based - not on the legitimacy of the election process, but simply on whether their desired candidate won or not… this is unethical and corrupt… but not surprising since those practicing this form of dereliction of duty are aligned with strident positions that are not legitimately going to gain a majority- but these zealots are so intense & willful and determined to impose their unpopular views that they now see democracy as their enemy … and they justify this through their hate of numerous ethnic, racial and religious groups that they despise and demonize … and in their anger, deem these groups to be invalid as voters …because they are a part of the numbers that make it impossible for the right wing white supremacists to gain a majority.
First off, I disagree with this article that it is a good idea to limit Kamala Harris’s role in 2024 without doing anything about the path the Republican Supreme Court laid out on how to steal an election.
That is the reason we are having these discussions about partisan boards effecting elections by picking candidates other than chosen by the voters is the Republican Supreme Court inventing the idea that State Legislatures can pick electors for president without regard to whom the majority of voters in those states actually chose.
In this atmosphere, the Vice President needs the power to reject state electors not picked by the people of that state. What the changes to the electoral vote act will do is force a Vice President to accept fake electors chosen by partisan state legislatures instead of the electors chosen by the voters.
That is without first and foremost making it impossible for state legislatures to choose fake electors not chosen by its voters, I believe it is a terrible mistake to pass a law requiring the Vice President to accept fake electors.
Many state laws confirm that certification is not the venue to address claims of fraud, failed equipment, or other irregularities. Instead, such challenges are usually heard in courts, where evidence can be weighed and authoritative judgment rendered.
The Supreme Court is teed up to eliminate the right to hear challenges in court when it hears Moore v. Harper. Proponents of the independent state legislature theory contend that state legislatures have exclusive and near-absolute power to regulate federal elections and state courts cannot stop them. Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh support that view.
Ya but the 2020 election officials in question are almost to a person loyal, voting, money-contributing Republicans, chosen after the 2016 and 2018 elections for their determination to make sure no monkey business seeped its way into their election. And that’s exactly what they did, as successfully as any other election in history.
The only reason it wasn’t good enough is the king of sore losers who just won’t shut the F up and go away. His Royal Sorely Lost Majesty has normalized the art of losing sorely to such a degree, that the sore losers of Republican primaries are now routinely accusing their fellow Republicans of cheating, and stealing the nomination, and demanding recounts and challenges with a Satan’s Snowball chance of reversing the outcome, as a matter of routine.
I’ll suggest a second reason. The Supreme Court was ready, willing and able to do a replay of Bush v Gore if the election hinged on one state, but overriding the results in five states was a bridge too far even for the Sanctimonious Six.
But The facts of Bush v Gore were that Gore was a putz who tried to cherry pick what he thought would be the most advantageous counties for a recount. He should have just demanded a state wide count and history would be on an alternate timeline now.
Can’t wait for the next public Jan6 Committee hearings. Let’s see what the committee eventually suggests be changed in the laws to 1) make this less likely to happen in future and 2) hold accountable those who seek to overturn the Constitution itself by lying and manipulating our country’s elections and voters vote tabulations, etc, etc
The only way to have this declared a criminal activity is for a liberal Democrat or a person of color to engage in the same activity that is AOK and fair game for Skanky, his daughter-wife, conservative coup plotters, wannabe VP assassins, trumpanzee maggots, and white christian nationalist military and cops to do.
