The 2024 presidential election is likely to be one of the most contentious ever. In advance of the 2024 election and to protect the will of the people, CLC successfully urged Congress to update the Electoral Count Act (ECA) of 1887, the law that provides the primary legal framework for casting and counting Electoral College votes in presidential elections.
Back to topAfter the January 6 attack on our country revealed gaps and ambiguities in the process of certifying presidential elections, Congress passed the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 — a strong bipartisan bill and major victory for voters’ ability to make their voices heard in future presidential elections.
In the year since, advocates and lawmakers at...
The president and vice president are chosen by the Electoral College, which is composed of individuals called “electors” from each state. When Americans cast their ballots for president, they are actually voting for their state’s slate of electors. After Election Day, electors meet in their respective states to cast their electoral votes and send those votes to Congress. The role of Congress is to count the electoral votes from each state to confirm the winner.
The ECA sets a timeline for selecting electors and transmitting their votes to Congress. The ECA also establishes procedures for how Congress counts the electoral votes and the role of the vice president, who presides over this process under the 12th Amendment as the president of the Senate.
To help prevent future attempts of election manipulation due to outdated language in the ECA, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) successfully urged Congress to modernize the ECA by the end of 2022. Currently, CLC is working to support states ahead of the 2024 presidential election to ensure their presidential election procedures conform to the newly passed federal law.
What Congress Has Done
On July 20, 2022, a bipartisan group of senators, led by Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Joe Manchin (D-WV), introduced the Electoral Count Reform Act (ECRA). Soon thereafter, the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration held a hearing that demonstrated the widespread consensus among experts and across the political spectrum about how the ECA should be modernized.
On September 19, 2022, Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Liz Cheney (R-WY) introduced a separate proposal in the House to update the ECA, the Presidential Election Reform Act (PERA). Their legislation was swiftly brought to the House floor, where lawmakers voted to pass the bill by a vote of 229-203.
On September 27, the Senate Rules Committee held a business meeting to advance the ECRA in the legislative process, adopting bipartisan amendments that strengthened the bill and set the stage for a floor vote by the full Senate before the end of 2022.
On December 23, Congress passed the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act as part of an end of year omnibus funding and policy package. On December 29, President Joe Biden signed the bill into law.
Some key updates to the law include:
