Electoral College Reform Could Prevent A 2024 Trump Coup

There doesn't seem to be much hope of passing legislation to protect voting rights this year. Senators Sinema and Manchin (along with 50 Republicans) killed that hope when they chose to defend the filibuster over voting rights. But some reform may be possible -- a reform of the Electoral College. This could prevent another attempt by Donald Trump to overturn voting results by misusing the Electoral College -- as he attempted to do in 2020-21.

Here are some of Greg Sargents comments about the EC reform effort in The Washington Post:

In a welcome turn of events, a new plan to “Trump proof” the 2024 election is advancing in Congress. Surprisingly, it appears to have some Republican support.

And Donald Trump is in a fury over it.

The plan in question concerns reform of the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which governs how Congress counts electoral votes. Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) has introduced an ECA reform bill, and a bipartisan group of senators is negotiating another version.

These seek to patch holes in the ECA that Trump relentlessly tried to exploit to overturn his 2020 loss. Which may be why Trump has issued two statements raging about these efforts. . . .

King’s proposal would clarify the vice president’s role as ceremonial, which is necessary. But that isn’t what would thwart a coup rerun, because on Jan. 6, 2025, Kamala Harris will presumably be vice president.

However, other things in the King proposal likely would thwart a future attempt.

One danger is that a single GOP governor and/or state legislature could send a fake slate of electors to Congress, defying a Democratic popular vote win, in a state set to decide the election.

A GOP-controlled House could count those sham electors. Under the current ECA, a single slate only gets tossed if both chambers vote to invalidate it. In that scenario, the Republican might win.

So the King bill would trigger a new process of judicial review if electors are appointed in defiance of a state’s previously existing procedures. When courts declare those electors invalid — and validate the winner’s electors — the King bill would require Congress to count the right ones.

“The right principle here is that once courts have spoken on who the valid electors are, Congress’s hands are tied,” Matthew Seligman, a legal scholar who specializes in the ECA, told me. “They have to count those electors.”

Another danger: A GOP-controlled House and Senate could refuse to count a state’s legitimately appointed electors. So King’s bill would raise the threshold to invalidate electors from a simple majority to an elusive three-fifths in both chambers. The bipartisan group also appears supportive of such a fix.

The differences between now and last time are crucial. In addition to pressuring Pence, Trump tried to get state legislatures to send fake electors and got dozens of congressional Republicans to object to Biden electors.

Both failed. But now, Trump is supporting many candidates for state-level offices who have pledged fealty to his 2020 lies — and likely would execute such schemes in 2024. His gubernatorial candidate in Georgia is running on an implicit promise to do just this.

If a corrupt secretary of state or governor does help send fake electors, do you doubt that a Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) would count them?

ECA reform would cut off these pathways at a time when Trump himself is telegraphing his intentions to exploit those pathways.