Normally, the period after an American presidential election is a time for cooling off and winding down tensions, and is often a bit of a political "honeymoon" for the winner. But as in so many things, we are not living in an era of electoral normalcy. Luckily, we do have some new guardrails, enacted in response to the attempts to overturn the 2020 election. The Electoral Count Reform Act (ECRA), signed into law in 2022, updates and shores up many of the antiquated procedures from the old Electoral Count Act of 1887, which proved so unhelpful in 2020. The 2024 election will be ECRA's first test, and it may well be a trial by fire. And unlike the 2020 election, the stress test might come from both sides of the aisle. This is the first article of a five-part series called "Protecting the Election," which explores how the certification of election results is under threat at both the state and national level. This is a preview of Andy Craig's latest article. Read the full column here. |