Tillis, Senate Republicans thinking of country first with Electoral Count Act

Last week, this editorial board wrote about representatives from North Carolina failing to support a bill that would reform a 135-year-old law that former president Donald Trump and his allies used to justify the January 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol. All nine of the state’s Republican representatives, including Senate hopeful Ted Budd, voted against the Presidential Election Reform Act. Some of those Republicans deemed it an “unconstitutional power grab.”

The Senate has been a much different story. While North Carolina’s Republican representatives were making partisan mountains out of apolitical molehills, U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis was co-sponsoring the Senate’s version of the bill. He did so alongside both Republicans and Democrats, demonstrating that sometimes, the two parties can work together on common sense legislation that strengthens the country.

Earlier this week, the Senate version of the bill made it through committee with a 14-1 vote. Texas Senator Ted Cruz was the lone “no,” telling the committee that he understood why Democrats were voting for the bill.

“What I don’t understand,” he continued, “is why Republicans are.”

Cruz, to put it plainly, is missing the point. The point is not to create more partisan divide over the events on Jan. 6, but to strengthen democracy. In another lifetime, none of this would be noteworthy. It’s government processes at their most simple: a bipartisan group writes a bill to fix a bug in the legal system, it gets voted on in committee, it then gets voted on by everyone, and finally it becomes law. It’s what Schoolhouse Rock told us Congress was like.

Instead, bipartisanship has been rare in recent memory, at all levels of government. It feels especially novel in an election year, when both parties aim to rile up their bases and get them to the polls.

Tillis hasn’t always been one to stand up to Donald Trump and far-right Republicans, but he has drawn a line when it comes to elections and democracy. He voted to uphold the 2020 election results, along with Sen. Richard Burr and Rep. Patrick McHenry in the House. The remaining House Republicans from North Carolina opposed the results.

Republicans’ relationship to Jan. 6 is complicated, in North Carolina and elsewhere. Many members of the party voted to overturn the election. Some, including members of the North Carolina delegation, were present at the rally just before the violence and destruction. Condemning it has been politically challenging for some Republicans — even if it’s the right thing to do. It threatens to isolate voters, and it goes against the most powerful members of the party.

The bill itself, S.4573, is fairly simple, however. There are issues in the 1887 Electoral Count Act that Trump and his circle tried to exploit in their pursuit of the Big Lie. The bill ensure’s that the vice president’s role in certifying the results is only ceremonial, so that the office does not hold the final say on whether election results are accepted or rejected. The bill also makes it harder to object the results of an election, requiring 20% of the voting members of Congress to object.

“This legislation was thoughtfully crafted with input from election experts, legal scholars, and senators on both sides of the aisle,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) said after the committee vote.

Tillis kept it simple when describing the bill in July, when it was first filed.

“I think with the Electoral Count Act, in particular, we just needed some clarity,” he told McClatchy.

We appreciate him and other Republicans upholding democratic values. It’s easy to fall into Cruz’s way of thinking, and craft legislation with your party in mind. This bipartisan group presented this bill with the nation in mind instead.

This story was originally published October 1, 2022 at 1:00 AM with the headline "Tillis, Senate Republicans thinking of country first with Electoral Count Act."