Democrats look to new weapon to stop a Jan. 6 repeat
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As they brace for former President Trump to challenge the election if he loses, some Democrats are looking to recent changes to the Electoral College certification process as a key safeguard against serious efforts to overturn the results.
Why it matters: Trump's framing of Congress as a key venue for overturning the election in 2021 helped lead to the deadly attack on Jan. 6 — and lawmakers want to avoid a repeat of that violence.
- "He called a mob to Washington urging them to 'fight like hell,' knowing they were armed, sent them down to the Capitol to try to overturn this. He could try to do that again," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.).
Driving the news: After Republicans forced votes to object to Georgia's and Arizona's presidential electors in 2021, Congress passed legislation to shore up ambiguities in the Electoral Count Act, which sets the process for certifying presidential electors.
- The resulting Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 prevents Congress from considering competing elector slates and clarifies that the vice president's role in the process is purely ceremonial.
- It also raised the threshold for filing objections. In 2021, just one House member and one senator could team up to force a vote to object to a state's elector slate. In 2025, it will have to be one-fifth of each chamber.
What they're saying: The new law is "good because it prevents grandstanding by a handful of senators and congressmen who want to make a stink. ... It takes more to do it now," said Rex VanMiddlesworth, a board member for Keep Our Republic, a bipartisan group seeking to increase confidence in elections.
- "The heightened threshold won't be outcome determinative, but hopefully will allow the process to proceed further," he added.
- Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, said it "made sense to make the law such that it wasn't one or two people objecting," calling the new threshold "very reasonable."
- "Making it clear that there's one valid slate coming from each state reduces the risk that Congress can subvert the election," added Catie Kelley, senior director for policy and strategic partnerships at the Campaign Legal Center.
Yes, but: Lawmakers acknowledge that the new law likely wouldn't stop Trump or his supporters outside of Congress from trying to reverse a loss.
- "Hopefully what we've got is sufficient to prevent mischief, but of course all laws depend on people adhering to them," Lofgren said.
- Said Morelle: "My confidence in the system is very high. ... What I have far less confidence about is Republicans' willingness to accept the results no matter what happens."
Note: It's not just Republicans — some House Democrats have declined to rule out objecting to the election results if Trump wins.
- Still, Democratic leadership has dismissed the idea, and it would be far more difficult for Democrats to muster a fifth of either chamber for such a move.
The intrigue: Some House Democrats aren't less sure the new law ultimately would prevent Congress from voting to object to elector slates.
- "I think if Trump tells these sycophants to do something, I think they'll do it. So this, again, comes down to what happens in the election," Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) told Axios.
- "If [House Speaker] Mike Johnson is somehow holding that gavel and Donald Trump tells him not to let the electoral count process go forward, do you think he's going to say no to Donald Trump? I don't see it."
Go deeper: Senators unveil bipartisan legislation to reform counting of electors
