Bipartisan group of senators unveils 2 bills designed to smooth presidential transitions

(Image credit: Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

published 20 July 2022

A bipartisan group of senators unveiled an agreement on Wednesday for a pair of bills that would ease contested transitions of power and make it more difficult to overturn the results of an election.

According to CNN, "one bill is focused on modernizing and overhauling" the Electoral Count Act of 1887, while the other stipulates that if "neither candidate concedes within five days of Election Day, both candidates would be able to receive access to federal transition resources" until the dispute is resolved.

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The negotiations that led to the two proposed bills were led by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), who hammered out the deal along with 14 other senators — six Democrats and eight Republicans. The measure needs 60 votes to overcome the filibuster, meaning at least 10 Republicans will have to vote for it. Assuming all the GOP senators who worked on the agreement vote for it, they'll just need to convince one more.

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Grayson Quay was the weekend editor at TheWeek.com. His writing has also been published in National Review, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Modern Age, The American Conservative, The Spectator World, and other outlets. Grayson earned his M.A. from Georgetown University in 2019.

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