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Sen. Chris Murphy urges Congress to vote on a bipartisan bill to reform the Electoral Count Act

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut
Alex Brandon
/
AP
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D- Connecticut, is pushing new legislation to guard against attempts to overturn the results of a presidential election.

It’s aimed at reforming the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which created the electoral college, said Murphy, one of 16 Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Senate who crafted the bill.

“The law is incomplete, it's ambiguous, and its weakness was part of the reason why Donald Trump thought he could steal the election in 2020,” he said.

The new legislation has barriers to prevent the popular vote in a presidential election from being overturned by either Congress or a state legislature, Murphy said.

“There’s probably 60 votes in the Senate. Speaker Nancy Pelosi would likely call it for a vote in the House. There’s no guarantee of that next year,” Murphy said. That’s because control of the Congress next year will depend on the outcome of November’s election.
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As WSHU Public Radio’s award-winning senior political reporter, Ebong Udoma draws on his extensive tenure to delve deep into state politics during a major election year. In addition to providing long-form reports and features for WSHU, he regularly contributes spot news to NPR, and has worked at the NPR National News Desk as part of NPR’s diversity initiative.
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