People vote at the polling place at Lincoln United Methodist Church on Chicago's South Damen Avenue on Nov. 3, 2020.
Last year lawyers and supporters of former President Donald Trump tried to use the 1887 law’s ambiguities to challenge the results of the 2020 election. The loopholes they tried to exploit included persuading Vice President Mike Pence to throw out votes of electors and recruiting slates of “fake electors” from states where Joe Biden had been declared the winner and the electoral slate had been certified in his favor.
They also show how the persistence of former President Trump’s unfounded conspiracy theories of widespread election fraud still have a tight grip on many of his allies and supporters. Among other badly needed reforms, the new legislation would clarify and confirm that the vice president has no power to alter the electoral vote count, contrary to Trump’s insistence on Jan. 6, which Pence quite properly refused to follow.