Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) became the 10th Republican in the upper chamber to sign on to bipartisan legislation aimed at reforming the Electoral Count Act of 1887, potentially providing a filibuster-proof majority on the bill.
The legislation, led by Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Joe Manchin (D-WV), looks to clarify “ambiguous provisions” on the vice president’s role in overseeing the process of certifying an election after former President Donald Trump and his allies pressured Mike Pence to reject certain states’ electors in a bid to overturn the 2020 election.
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Under the legislation, the threshold for objecting to electors would be raised “to at least one-fifth of the duly chosen and sworn members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.” Currently, only one lawmaker from each chamber must object to an elector.
Grassley’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The bill also looks to strike language in the law that could allow state legislatures to overturn the popular vote.
The measure currently has 17 co-sponsors, including Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mark Warner (D-VA), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Todd Young (R-IN), Chris Coons (D-DE), Ben Sasse (R-NE), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
Every Democrat in the Senate would need to vote for the measure to reach the 60 votes needed unless additional Republicans sign on.
Proponents of the bill argue it is a necessary step to prevent a repeat of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
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“From the beginning, our bipartisan group has shared a vision of drafting legislation to fix the flaws of the archaic and ambiguous Electoral Count Act of 1887,” the senators said in a joint statement upon its introduction.
“Through numerous meetings and debates among our colleagues as well as conversations with a wide variety of election experts and legal scholars, we have developed legislation that establishes clear guidelines for our system of certifying and counting electoral votes for President and Vice President. We urge our colleagues in both parties to support these simple, commonsense reforms,” they added.
