While legal scholars have voiced for decades that the Electoral Count Act of 1887 was overdue for an overhaul, most Americans didn’t think twice about the mechanics of selecting a president until the 2020 election. That’s when the nation learned the ECA was open to interpretation, and efforts to clarify its meaning gained steam.
In 2022, Bipartisan Senate leaders came together to pass the Electoral Count Reform Act (ECRA), which creates a new threshold for members to object to a slate of electors, identifies the role of the vice president as “solely ministerial,” and clarifies that Congress must defer to the slates as determined by the states.
In this program, Governor Tom Corbett and Judge John Jones, leaders of civic education non-profit Keep Our Republic, examine the origins, solutions, and difficulties of the Electoral Count Act of the 19th Century. Their discussion will:
Assess the improvements, gaps and prospects of the new 2022 law
Explore how the ECRA would govern specific scenarios of
- dueling slates of electors
- a state that fails to certify its Presidential votes
- a 12th Amendment contested election process
Address questions of the constitutionality of the ECRA
Co-sponsored with Keep Our Republic. Founded in 2020, Keep Our Republic is a non-partisan civic action organization dedicated to protecting a republic of laws and strengthening the checks and balances of our democratic electoral system.
All attendees will receive the course handout as a digital download. This handout is not available for purchase.
Recorded in October 2023.