Former president Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State (and White House chief of staff) James Baker, in a joint Wall Street Journal op-ed, advocate for Electoral Count Act reform along the lines of what they understand to be in the soon-to-be-released bipartisan Senate bill. Among other points, they write: “congressional objections should be allowed only on the basis of clearly defined and narrow criteria, and prohibited when results are fully verified in accordance with the law. The reform could also clarify that Congress’s constitutional authority to set the time of presidential elections precludes state legislatures from changing the means for choosing electors after voting has begun.”

Here’s their conclusion:

“The need to reform the Electoral Count Act is too great for our elected leaders to get bogged down in the zero-sum game of politics that characterizes Washington today. There will be a time and place to debate important proposals addressing voter access and turnout, ballot security and other election-related issues. But such competing efforts should not be included in current talks about reforming the Electoral Count Act. Doing so would be a recipe for gridlock and failure.

Reforming the Electoral Count Act would help our nation avoid a repeat of the disaster that occurred on Jan. 6, 2021.“