A bipartisan group of senators urged a rewrite Wednesday of the 19th-century law that outlines the procedures for counting electoral votes in presidential elections, in hopes of preventing another event like the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
The proposed revisions to the Electoral Count Act, which initially passed in 1887, would be the first time in more than a century that Congress has updated the law. Lawmakers have negotiated for months to clarify how electoral votes should be counted.
One of the revisions would make clear that the vice president, who presides over the counting, doesn’t have the authority to object to certification of electoral votes.