In response to the events that unfolded at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, Election Reformers Network was among early voices calling for reform of the Electoral Count Act (ECA), the old and poorly written law used to support dubious legal theories for overturning the presidential election. Shortly thereafter, a bipartisan group of lawmakers set about establishing a new, clearer framework to govern how presidential elections should proceed. That effort culminated in the Electoral Count Reform Act (ECRA), which was signed into law on December 29, 2022, by President Joe Biden.
Because of the ECRA’s passage, many states will find that the laws governing their presidential elections now require an update to comply with federal law. Our new report, Helping States Comply with the Electoral Count Reform Act, aims to assist policymakers and administrators in navigating these essential changes.
Despite its national character, the presidential election is administered state-by-state. States establish their own procedures for how voters cast their ballots, how those ballots are counted and confirmed, how objections to the process may be raised and adjudicated, and how electors are chosen. State law also establishes how those electors meet and cast their votes for President and Vice President. The United States Constitution and federal law place a series of guardrails around these procedures, but states both fill in the gaps and execute the process.
The goal of this study is to address any uncertainties and expedite specific post-election processes so that there is no room for the kind of unfounded arguments and conflicts that occurred in the aftermath of the 2020 election. Election Reformers Network is also in the process of working with lawmakers and coalitions in key individual states to identify areas for improvement in each state’s election code by 2024.