Changes to the electoral count act before the senate rules and administration committee. We hear from a Bipartisan Panel of election will experts advocating for the needs of eight wall which was written in 1887 in order to prevent a repeat of the january 6 attack on the u. S. Capital. Thank you so much, everyone. Not much waiting at all. I do that because we have chaired this committee together and we are good friends. As we approach this bill, electoral count act, it is important the spirit of bipartisanship gets us through and gets this passed. Our colleagues will be here shortly. Senator king, who we will hear from, who has been a major leader in this area, worked with me and senator durbin on our bill that we presented to the group that came together to work on this. I want to thank senator cap and who is a valued manager of the committee. I know senator warner was also part of the group. We are joined by the former secretary of state, senator padilla, a valued member of our community, as well as senator fischer, we might see up here at some point in the coming congress. I think all of you and i want to thank senator collins and senator manchin to this beautiful hearing room. You can look at the ships, i know you like to sail, senator manchin. The electoral count act was passed in 1887 in response to the disputed election between Rutherford Hayes and samuel tilden, something that comes off of the lips of everyone. I point this out because it was a long time ago. That bill was put in place to govern how congress, at that time, counted electoral votes for president. It has not gotten a lot of attention in the next 130 years. It became the cornerstone, sadly, of a plan hatched by President Trump and his allies that led to an attempt at an insurrection at the capitol. The will of the American People could have been overturned. It culminated in a violent mob desecrating our nations capitol. Enemies of our democracy sought to exploit this antiquated lot to subvert the results of a free and fair election. I remember this day well because senator blunt and i were the ones at 3 30 in the morning with Vice President pence walking through the broken glass. We had done the walk 13 hours before. It was a big ceremony. At the end of the day, it was just us, closed doors, broken windows, glass all over the place and spraypainted columns. We went forward. Part of that is working together to make sure that laws cannot be used by anyone of any Political Party or persuasion in a way that undercuts the will of the people. Number 1, the claim was made that the electoral count act as it exists would allow the Vice President to refuse to accept electoral votes that were voluntary cast. We watched in horror as the mob stormed the capital enchanted hang mike pence we know the claims were false. In the proposals we have put forward by the Bipartisan Group make it absolutely clear that the Vice President does not have this power. In the days and weeks before the insurrection, they claimed a lot allowed state legislatures to appoint their own electors and state representatives in wisconsin and michigan were pressured to do just that. They claim the law allowed road electors to substitute their own view for the will of the voters. They recruited people in multiple states to send in fraudulent votes. My proposal and the bipartisan work that you have done would guard against efforts like those by ensuring candidates can go to federal court to stop rogue governors from sending votes. I think everyone learned one senator and one congressman have to be joined together and can actually gum up the preceding. We realized it would take 24 hours before we even knew the insurrection was coming our way. As senator collins just pointed out to me there have been other objections over the years. People can make objections, no one is suggesting we stop them from speaking out. It is that there has to be a minimum that makes sense before congress would step in and delay the counting of the electoral vote. I will never forget, as i said, what happened that day. I do not think any of us will. It is time that we reform the bill. We released draft legislation, this great Bipartisan Group was put together, led by senator collins and senator manchin. We have engaged with the Group Multiple times, including with our staff assistance. They work for months to get consensus has emerged that it must address at least four key issues. The Vice President , the number of people objecting, the threshold, the way the slates could be picked at the last minute after an election is done and the progress of making sure. I want to make clear that since the 2020 election, when more americans voted than ever before during a global pandemic, we have seen a tidal wave of Voter Suppression laws. We appreciate the work that senator manchin has done to try to fix that. I hope we can get some of those reforms done in the future. With that, i want to turn it over to my friend and colleague and i thank him for his bipartisan work on this. It is our job to ensure this never happens again, no matter who was in charge or what happens. We are focused on the future. Thank you, chairwoman klobuchar. We have worked together on these issues for a long time and hopefully as an example of the importance of coming together and making things happen. I am glad to get a chance to talk while senator manchin and senator collins are here to talk about some of the reasons for the hearing today. As you pointed out, the electoral count act of 1887 just turned out to be more troublesome, potentially, than anybody had thought. What happened in 1876 was the tightly contested race you talked about between tilden and hayes. Four states all had two different groups meet on december 6, 1876. Each of those groups sent in competing sets of electoral count. There was no way to deal with that issue at that point in our history. Congress passed the Electoral Commission act, which did not work well, either. With a compromise that put hayes in the white house and largely ended reconstruction in the south at the same time after , really, a decade of fairly great process. It was eliminated as part of that compromise. One of the darker decisions in the history of the country. In the next decade, there were two more really close elections. Congress contemplated that whole time, how do we deal with this if it ever happened again . It took a decade but they came up with the idea of the bill that became the electoral count act. By the way, during that same period of time, they eliminated legislative leaders from the line of succession to the presidency. That is another topic that, frankly, i think we should talk about more closely than we have, though probably not today. Those legislative leaders from the 1880s until the truman presidency were not included in the line of succession to the presidency. They were put back in under president truman and reversed. Under the. Early days of the country it was the president pro temp and then the speaker. Partly because of president trumans Great Respect for the speaker, but they put the speaker first and then the president pro temp. There was a time when president ial leaders, because of how close the act of 1887 seem to do the job. It was no doub it was written in a different age. The language of 1887 is really outdated and vague in so many ways. Both sides of the aisle want to update this act. Recent polling indicates almost everyone who has thought about this wants to update this act. Questions like, what is the proper role of congress . What is the proper role of the Vice President . How should objections be levied . What is the appropriate threshold for that process to start . What is the role of the federal government in this process . Should timelines be altered . We will hear about that at the hearing today. It provides us an opportunity, it was senator klobuchars decision to have this hearing, we have the opportunity to further explore all those questions and get this bill passed this year. I want to thank senator collins and senator manchin for being here, i applaud their efforts. Senator warner worked on the bipartisan effort to come up with a reform bill. I also want to thank chair klobuchar and senator king to put together along with senator durbin to put together a proposal that i think the Bipartisan Group looked into and considered while drafting their legislation. The cooperation we have seen will hopefully be the spirit of cooperation as we move forward and come up with a process that everyone is more comfortable with and will stand the test of time. I want to thank all of you for being here today and i look forward to hearing from our witnesses and moving this process forward. We have been joined by senator warner. Thank you. Lets start out with senator collins, senator manchin and then we will hear from senator king. Sen. Collins thank you, very much. Chairwoman klobuchar, Ranking Member blunt, members of this distinguished committee, members of our Bipartisan Group, senator warner, all the members of this committee, it is a great pleasure to join you this morning to testify on the legislation that a Bipartisan Group of senators has looked to reform the 135yearold electoral count act. The archaic and ambiguous law that governs how congress tallies each states electoral votes for president and Vice President. In four out of the past six president ial elections, the electoral count acts process for county electoral votes has been abused with objections being raised by members of both parties. It took the violent breach of the capitol on january 6 to really shine a spotlight on how urgent the need for reform was. Over the past several months, the dedicated Bipartisan Group of senators have worked very hard to craft the legislation before you. United in our determination to prevent the flaws in this 1887 law from being used to undermine future president ial elections. I would like to acknowledge the contributions of our cosponsors, two members of this committee. Senators murphy, young and graham all played a role. I want to especially thank the chairwoman and Ranking Member for their advice and insight throughout this process. The electoral count reform and president ial it will help ensure votes accurately reflect each states popular vote for president and Vice President. It includes a number of important reforms. Let me highlight just a few. First, it reasserts the constitutional role of the Vice President counting electoral votes. It strictly and solely the idea that any Vice President could have the power to unilaterally accept, reject, change or halt the counting of electoral votes is antithetical to our constitutional structure and basic democratic principles. Second, our bill raises the threshold to lodge an objection to electors to a minimum of 1 5 of the duly chosen and sworn call for the yeas and nays on a vote in congress. Currently only a Single Member is required to object to elector or a slate of electors. Third and perhaps most significant, our legislation ensures congress can identify a single conclusive slate of electors submitted by each state. It clearly identifies a single state official who is responsible for certifying a states elector. It ensures a states elector is certified and appointed pursuant to state law that was in effect prior to election day. Third, it provides president ial candidates with an expedited judicial review of several claims related to a states certificate of electors. This does not create a new cause of action. Instead it will ensure a and efficient adjudication of disputes. Fourth, it would require congress submitted by a state pursuant to the judgment of state or federal court. Finally, our bill strikes a prevention of another outdated law enacted in 1845 that could be used by state legislatures to override their popular vote by declaring a failed election. That is the term that is undefined in that 1845 law. Our bill permits a state to modify the period of this election only in extraordinary and catastrophic circumstances. And also, only as provided under that states law enacted prior to election day. Legislation is supported by numerous election law experts and constitutional scholars with whom we have consulted throughout our deliberations. I am so grateful for their advice and i ask unanimous consent that several of the statements of endorsement be included in the record in this hearing. They will be included. Sen. Collins chairwoman klobuchar, Ranking Member blunt, members of this committee, we have before us an historic opportunity to modernize and strengthen our system of certifying and counting the electoral votes for president and Vice President. Nothing is more essential to the survival of the democracy than the orderly transfer of power. There is nothing more essential to the orderly transfer of power than clear rules. I urge my colleagues in the senate and the house to seize this opportunity to enact the sensible and muchneeded reform before the end of this conference. Thank you so much. Thank you very much, senator collins. We have been joined by the senator who hosted our field h earing. Sen. Manchin senator klobuchar, Ranking Member blunt, senator capito, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to present some brief remarks. The electoral count act is one of the most important things we have before us in congress today. Electoral count act was originally passed in 1887 and was a valiant but clumsy effort to ensure that another president ial election, like the 1876 contest between Rutherford Hayes and samuel never happened before. The 1876 election was a disaster. It was an absolute disaster. Neither candidate received a majority in multiple states had serious controversies by submitting dueling slates of electors. A deal was struck that ended reconstruction. Hayes was eventually named president. Following two close elections in 1880 in 1880 and 1884 and failed attempts at reform, Congress Passed the electoral count act of 1887. As we saw january 6, 2020 one, a lot of the fixes are not merely outdated but serve as the very mechanisms that bad actors have zeroed in on as a way to potentially the results. As i am sure you will hear from the panel of distinguished experts that testify before you today, the time to reform the eca is way past due. The time for congress to act is now, senator collins said before this congress adjourns. The bipartisan bill produced by senator collins and myself and colleagues. The president ial transition improvement act of 2022. I am thankful for senator collins and her leadership throughout the process and for the valuable input from all my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. I think it is worthwhile mentioning them because they have worked so hard. Senator romney, senator murkowski, senator capito, senator young, senator graham, senator king and all of the cosponsors. I will be among the first to acknowledge that the bill is not perfect but represents many months of hard work and compromise and would serve as a tremendous improvement over the current eca. The bill addresses what the Bipartisan Group identified as the most concerning problems with the eca. It ambiguously clarifies the Vice President is prohibited i repeat that it clarifies the Vice President is prohibited from interfering with electoral votes. It raises the objection threshold by 20 . 87 house members from one. It also improves on only one member of the senate to 20 must ratify. It sets a hard deadline for state governors to certify their respective states electoral result. They cannot wait until after the election and then make changes. If they fail to do so or submit a slate that does not match, it creates an expedited judicial process to resolve. On the last point, the expedited judicial procedure, i would like to take a moment to discuss the reform and explain why we proposed revising the eca. Our group decided to rewrite section 5 regarding the ascertainment of electors, not to create any new causes of action but provide for expedited review of an action that it president ial and Vice President ial candidate can already bring under existing law. It does so in a way that carefully limits the parties this procedure and ensures that the slates of electors in congress tallies are those certified pursuant to laws prior to election day. The group is open to some technical fixes to address common concerns. Striking a five day notice typically required under section 2284. We stand by this provision as a way to quickly and efficiently determine a single, lawful in closing, i would like to remind you that we were all there on january 6. That was for real. We have a responsibility to make sure it never happens again. Electoral count reform improvement act of 2022 is something our country desperately needs and the correction needs to happen now. I thank you for taking this up now and working in an expeditious way. We have great birth great presenters behind us that have all of the knowledge of the resources we used two make this piece of legislation happen. I want to thank senator collins and all members who worked so diligently. Sen. Klobuchar senator king. Sen. King the first thing i want to do is think cap senators and the group that worked on this bill. It is an example of how this should work. It involves compromise and a great deal of research. I want to compliment you on network on network on that work. It gives us a piece of legislation we can work on in this committee and hopefully act within this congress. I think that is very important. This is not a partisan issue. This is a mechanical issue. This is a rules issue that involves how our government should work no matter who is in charge. This coming january 6 of 2025, a de