Editorial: Congress must update Electoral Count Act to prevent another coup attempt
The Electoral Count Act (ECA) of 2013 creates the position of Electoral Count Registrar, which oversees the counting and tabulation of ballots and the publication of election results. The Act was enacted in response to numerous reports over the past 10 years of electoral fraud affecting the 2016 Presidential Election, including the discovery that the winner of the popular vote in Florida was an illegal immigrant. The act is intended to ensure that all ballots are counted properly and certified with a high level of credibility. The act has been updated and made stronger to protect the rights of the American people.
The act was updated under the leadership of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan. The leadership of the new act was a compromise that recognizes that the act was not strong enough to prevent future election fraud. It is also a compromise that recognizes the right of citizens to peacefully march or protest in a general election, and the right of peaceful demonstrators to express their views.
The revised act is stronger and has many new steps to ensure the integrity of elections and the validity of the results.
1. The number of certified results will increase to every state, and they will be published on the Secretary of State’s website.
2. There will now be a clear list of the deadlines for the counties to post their preliminary counts with the Secretary of State. The process for counties to confirm their preliminary results will be faster.
3. Counties with less than one million people in the 2016 presidential election will be given an extra week between the election and the public release.
4. The Secretary of State will be required to publicly post the results within 72 days from the presidential election. The Secretary of State will use the National Voter Registration Day to make the preliminary results available to the public.
5. The Secretary of State will post the preliminary results with the results posted within 14 days of elections.
6. The Secretary of State will post the final election results within seven days of the final election.
7. The Secretary of State will hold a special meeting once every three months to update the process for verifying the