After Jan. 6, lawmakers want to clarify that vice presidents have ceremonial role in counting votes

• The 1887 Electoral Count Act has been criticized as confusing and contradictory.
• The statute was at the heart of Trump's strategy to overturn the 2020 election.
• Updating the statute is part of the legislative justification to investigate the Capitol attack.

WASHINGTON – An archaic law was at the heart of President Donald Trump's attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Now attempts to update the confusing and contradictory statute have become the most likely legislative remedy to emerge from the investigation of the Capitol attack of Jan. 6, 2021.

Expect the 1887 Electoral Count Act to be raised during this month's public hearings of the Jan. 6 committee, which will focus in part on how Trump and his allies leaned on ambiguities in the law to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject certain state electors and hand the election to Trump.

Pence refused. But the strategy tested the statute enough that, to avoid confusion in the 2024 presidential election, Republican and Democratic members of Congress have discussed for months how to update the Electoral Count Act – action that could come this year. 

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