WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he will “proudly support” legislation to revise presidential election certification rules, bolstering a bipartisan effort to revise a 19th-century law and avoid another uprising on January 6.
The legislation would clarify and expand parts of the Voter Count Act of 1887, which, along with the Constitution, governs how states and Congress certify voters and declare presidential winners. The changes to the certification process are in response to the failed efforts of former President Donald Trump and his allies to exploit loopholes in the law to reverse his 2020 loss to Joe Biden, and the violent attack on the Capitol by his supporters as Congress counted the votes. .
“The Congressional process for counting the votes of presidential electors was written 135 years ago,” McConnell said. “The chaos that came to a head on January 6 of last year certainly underscored the need for an update.”
McConnell made the remarks just before the Senate Rules Committee voted 14-1 to approve the bill and send it to the Senate, where a vote is expected after the November election. The only senator to vote against the legislation was Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, one of two senators to stand up and oppose Biden’s certification last year.
The GOP leader’s endorsement gave the legislation a major boost as the bipartisan group strives to pass the bill before the end of the year and before the next election cycle. Trump is still pushing bogus claims of voter fraud and says he won the election as he eyes another race in 2024. McConnell’s support for the law could put him even further at odds with Trump, who frequently berates the GOP leader and encouraged Republicans to vote against it.
The House has already passed a broader bill revising election rules, but it has far less Republican support. While the House bill received a handful of GOP votes, the Senate version already has the support of at least 12 Republicans — more than enough to smash a filibuster and pass the legislation in the Senate 50-50.
As he announced his support, McConnell noted that Democrats have also opposed legitimate election results the last three times Republicans have won the presidency. “The situation obviously required painstaking, methodical and bipartisan work,” he said, noting that the bipartisan group that brokered the bill worked on the language for months.
McConnell called the House bill a “non-runner” in the Senate because of the bipartisan compromise on Senate language. “We have a chance to get it right,” he said.
Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democratic chair of the Senate Rules Committee, expressed a similar sentiment. The Senate legislation is the bill that will “achieve a strong bipartisan consensus,” she said.
Cruz, who backed Trump as he made false allegations of fraud in 2020, called the legislation “bad legislation” and said it would be harder for Congress to challenge a fraudulent election. He wondered why a Republican would support him.
The bill is about “democratic rage” against Trump, Cruz said.
However, Cruz was the only dissenter. Among the Republicans on the rules panel who voted for the bill shortly after McConnell’s statement was Mississippi Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, one of only eight female senators to vote against certification of Biden, and Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty, a strong Trump ally.
Senators made minor changes to the legislation at Tuesday’s meeting, but left the bill largely intact. The bill, drafted by Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, would clarify that the vice president has only a ceremonial role in the certification process, tighten rules around states that send their votes to Congress and make it harder for lawmakers to oppose them.
The changes are a direct response to Trump, who publicly lobbied several states, members of Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence to help him as he tried to reverse Biden’s victory. Even though Trump’s efforts failed, lawmakers from both parties said his attacks on the election showed the need for stronger safeguards in law.
If passed into law, the bill would be Congress’s strongest legislative response yet to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, in which hundreds of Trump supporters beat police officers, stormed into the Capitol and interrupted the joint session as lawmakers tallied the votes. . After the rioters were cleared, the House and Senate overruled GOP objections to the vote in two states. But more than 140 Republicans voted to support them.
Differences between the House and Senate bills will need to be resolved before final passage, including language around congressional objections.
While the Senate bill would require one-fifth of both houses to agree on an electoral objection to trigger a vote, the House bill would require the agreement of at least one-third of the members of the House and one-third of the Senate. Currently, only one member from each chamber is required for the House and Senate to vote on whether to reject voters from a state.
The House bill also sets out new grounds for objection, while the Senate does not.
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Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.