House Passes Bill Reforming Election Law to Prevent Another January 6 Insurrection
The House on Wednesday passed a bill to overhaul an election law, which had been around for centuries, in response to the January 6 insurrection.
The legislation passed with 229 votes in favor of overhauling the 1800s-era statute known as the Electoral Count Act against 203 votes. Lawmakers passed it in response to the January 6 riot where former President Donald Trump attempted to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election.
According to the Associated Press, the bill's passage means that the Electoral Count Act will be overhauled, along with the U.S. Constitution, how states and Congress certify electors and declare presidential election winners.
The report said Trump and some of his aides and lawyers have not been successful in trying to exploit loopholes in the law during an attempt to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
Democrats have been scrambling to pass the bill by the end of the year, ahead of the 2024 election cycle, as Donald Trump considers running again.
Several Republicans Voted Yes For the Election Law Overhaul
While a staggering number of votes were from Democrats, a surprising number of Republicans still voted for the bill. In the Senate version of the bill's passage, at least 10 GOP senators voted for the bill.
However, only nine House Republicans voted in favor of the overhaul at the House, as the vote fell mostly along party lines. Several House Republicans who argued against the bill noted that it should not have been a priority because the Democrats are using it as a political tool ahead of the midterm elections in November.
All nine House Republicans who voted in favor of the overhaul are not returning to Congress next year.
What Does This New Election Reform Bill Do?
According to PBS, the bill would set new parameters around the January 6 joint session of Congress, which happens every four years after a presidential election.
Republican Wyoming Representative Liz Cheyney, who co-sponsored the bill, said the measure would ensure that the January 6 sessions are "as the constitution envisioned, a ministerial day."
House Administration Committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif), who also co-sponsored the bill, noted that "the American people are supposed to decide an election, not Congress."
This is reportedly in response to Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the elections using then-Vice President Mike Pence, who chose to go with the constitution and certified the election, announcing Joe Biden as the official and rightful winner of the 2020 presidential election.
According to the Boston Globe, the bill also increases the threshold for individual lawmakers' objections to any state's electoral votes.
It now requires a third of the House and a third of the Senate to object in order to trigger voting on the results for either chamber. It changes the previous rule that only one House Representative or one Senator can object to the vote.
It was an attempt to thwart baseless or politically motivated challenges, such as what Donald Trump tried to do during the events leading up to the insurrection on January 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol to try to stop Congress from certifying the presidential electoral votes.
This article is owned by Latin Post.
Written by: Rick Martin
WATCH: House Passes Election Reform Legislation With Support of Nine GOP Lawmakers - From NBC News
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