Electoral Count Act

The Electoral Count Act of 1887 is a federal law governing how Congress counts electoral votes and resolves disputes over them, enacted after the contested 1876 presidential election. It set the procedures for the January 6 joint session at which the vice president presides over the counting of electoral votes. After the 2020 election, Donald Trump acted on the theory that the vice president could reject or delay counting certified electoral votes under the Act, a reading Mike Pence declined to accept. Following Trump’s attempted steal of the 2020 election, Congress passed the Electoral Count Reform Act in 2022, which clarified that the vice president’s role is purely ceremonial and raised the threshold for lodging objections.