WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell got here out on Tuesday in favor of laws aimed toward stopping election subversion, giving the bipartisan effort a significant enhance and placing him at odds with former President Donald Trump.
“I strongly help the modest adjustments that our colleagues within the working group have fleshed out after months of detailed discussions. I am going to proudly help the laws, offered that nothing greater than technical adjustments are made to its present kind,” McConnell, R-Ky., mentioned on the Senate ground.
McConnell had lengthy inspired the negotiations led by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., to tighten election legal guidelines.
The Electoral Depend Reform and Presidential Transition Enchancment Act would make clear the 1887 Electoral Depend Act to restrict the vp’s function to counting votes, elevate the edge to object to sure electors to one-fifth of every chamber, bolster legal guidelines round certifying elections for the rightful winner and search to facilitate an orderly presidential transition amid contested outcomes.
Lawmakers crafted the laws within the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol, when pro-Trump rioters stormed the constructing the place then-Vice President Mike Pence was presiding over the formal tally of Electoral Faculty votes in an effort to overturn Joe Biden’s win. Trump has repeatedly insisted that Pence that the facility to subvert the rely, which specialists overwhelmingly agree he didn’t. The laws would clarify the vp’s ceremonial function.
“The chaos that got here to a head on January sixth of final 12 months definitely underscored the necessity for an replace” to the Electoral Depend Act, McConnell mentioned in his ground speech. “The ensuing product — this invoice, as launched, is the one probability to get an consequence and to truly make legislation.”
Earlier than McConnell’s help, the invoice was cosponsored by 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans within the Senate. His backing offers it a stronger probability of clearing the 60-vote barrier to interrupt a filibuster.
The laws is ready to be marked up and revised with modest adjustments within the Senate Guidelines Committee on Tuesday afternoon, with a vote on a “supervisor’s modification” negotiated by Guidelines Chair Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Rating Member Roy Blunt, R-Mo.
The invoice has some variations from the Home model, which handed the chamber final week with Democrats and simply 9 GOP votes.
“We should replace the antiquated Electoral Depend Act to make sure that electoral votes for president precisely mirror the desire of the folks in every state and to enhance the method for counting electoral votes in Congress,” Klobuchar mentioned. “I look ahead to adopting these bipartisan adjustments at our Committee markup so we will proceed to advance this essential laws.”
Kate Santaliz contributed.