Last week, the U.S. Senate held a hearing about efforts to reform the antiquated Electoral Count Act (ECA). While I previously wrote about my skepticism of the proposed reform, I was eager to watch the hearing and see if my concerns — and those raised by others — were addressed. But for the most part, the hearing failed to address my central concern about the role of governors and the lack of adequate judicial review over their certification decisions. 

In my latest piece, “A Trap or Not? Deciphering the Electoral Count Reform Act,” I elaborate further on my issues with judicial review in the proposed law. In particular, the law privileges federal court action over state court action and fails to give candidates an explicit federal right to an accurate certification — oversights that could give election-denying governors the power to falsely certify election results with impunity.

Congress needs to solve the problem of election-denying governors who refuse to accurately certify election results. If Republicans won’t agree to that, perhaps efforts to reform the ECA were a trap all along.

Let’s keep up the fight,

Marc

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