(Joshua Paladino, Headline USA) Democrat election’s lawyer Marc Elias endorsed an article on Twitter that said bipartisan voting reform “is worse than nothing,” because it would give Republicans everything and leave “American democracy” in crisis.
If you read one thing today, make it this?
“Sorry, but this kind of ‘reform’ is worse than nothing. It is bipartisanship on Republican terms and it fails to address the real threats to American democracy.”https://t.co/VozIges4uM
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) January 24, 2022
The column, “Beware Sham Voter Protection,” warned Democrats to oppose revisions to the 1877 Electoral Count Act and instead pursue a “federal takeover [of elections] guaranteeing the franchise.”
The Reconstruction-era Act outlines the method by which Congress and the Vice President count Electoral votes.
Both Democrats and Republicans want to change the bill’s language to ensure that the Vice President has no discretionary judgement about which electors to accept, which to discard, and which to remand to the states for further clarification or verification.
The column’s author, Robert Kuttner, criticized fellow leftist Matt Yglesias, who modestly lauded the proposed reform.
“ECA reform is good on the merits—it won’t fix American political institutions or ‘save democracy,’ but it will reduce the odds of a collapse, and reducing those odds is important,” Yglesias wrote. “Passing and signing bipartisan bills also tend to be at least a little bit popular and make the president who’s doing it look good.”
Kuttner plainly stated that he does not oppose an old law like the 1877 ECA but the Constitution itself, which states that electors are appointed “in such manner as the Legislature thereof shall direct.”
“The escalating threats to a free and fair election are not in the procedures of final count when Congress gathers, but at the state and local level,” he wrote.
Last week, Senate Democrats failed to kill the filibuster due to opposition from Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and thus they failed to pass the radical For the People Act, which would have federalized all elections.
The Senate also failed to pass the more modest Freedom to Vote Act, which contained proposals like automatic voter registration, a 15-day mandatory early voting period for all federal elections, and a mandatory nationwide voter ID requirement.
Since these measures have failed, Kuttner believes Democrats have three options: “litigation in state courts, full use by the attorney general of what remains of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and a massive voter mobilization and turnout.”
Elias will support the first option, as he has already promised to sue states that pass election laws unfavorable to Democrats.
