Democracy group launches $55K campaign to back Electoral Count Act

A democracy group is dropping $55,000 in an advertising campaign to push lawmakers to back changes to the Electoral Count Act as a reform bill heads to the Senate floor.

The Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 makes a number of changes to protect the transition of power from one administration to another and is slated to be reviewed by the Senate Rules Committee on Wednesday.

The deal, secured by a bipartisan group of senators in July, aims to address a number of issues exposed by the events of Jan. 6, 2021, including specifically stating that the vice president’s role in certifying the vote is purely ceremonial.

Issue One Action, the democracy group, is running digital ads across a number of news outlets to back the bill, calling it a “meaningful and bipartisan step forward that will protect U.S. elections and insulate our country from a constitutional crisis following future presidential elections.” 

“Until Congress passes a full and comprehensive update to the Electoral Count Act, our country will remain vulnerable to future chaos and attacks on our democracy. It is encouraging to see the Senate move quickly to strengthen our constitutional guardrails,” said Issue One Action CEO Nick Penniman.

The legislation makes other tweaks to challenging an election.

It directly targets the fake elector scheme the Trump campaign sought to use to overturn the 2020 election by sending “alternate” electors from key states won by President Biden. The bill would largely leave each state’s governor in charge of submitting electoral certificates to end the risk of any competing electors.

And while currently just one lawmaker can object to electors submitted by the states, the legislation would raise that bar, requiring 20 percent of lawmakers to back such an objection.

This story was updated at 1:12 p.m.