The Electoral Count Act of 1887 (ECA) was law for 135 years. But then, Jan. 6, 2021, happened - the cause of which some partially attributed to the ECA (more about this in the interview). So, what was to be done?

In 2022, Congress passed the ECRA, which will be law on Jan. 6, 2025, when the 119th Congress counts the 2024 Electoral votes.

The ECRA is the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022.

The counting of the Electoral votes has pushed our country to the brink on multiple occasions. Imagine this: it's two days before the presidential inauguration, and our country still has no president-elect! This is not a hypothetical or something from a Hollywood thriller. This really happened in our history. That's what happens when the simple, boring process of counting the electoral votes - a mere formality really - goes awry!

The January 6th after an election year is one of those days that usually goes unnoticed. Except, when something goes wrong. But each time something went wrong, like it seriously did on Jan. 6, 2021, Congress strove to improve the way it counts the Electoral votes.

In this interview, my guest explains how Congress improved the process of counting the Electoral votes after each crisis, in 1804, 1887, 1933 and 2022.

🚩About My Guest:

My guest is Prof. Larry Schwartztol, a legal scholar at Harvard Law School, where he teaches, writes, and advocates on democracy and voting rights and is also the director of the Democracy and Rule of Law Clinic. Before joining the faculty at Harvard Law School, he served in the Biden Administration as Associate White House Counsel and Special Assistant to the President. You can access his latest publication, CONGRESS’S POWER OVER THE ELECTORAL COUNT, which we also discuss in this interview.

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Also, listen to my interview with Prof. Edward Foley about why he thinks we don't have the election system that we think we have!

Have you ever wondered why Congress meets on January 3rd? Visit History Behind News for this story.

I hope you enjoy these interviews about the history behind our news.

Adel Aali, host & producer

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1. 🎵 attribution, links and license for the theme music in this podcast: The Success by Keys of Moon | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Musicpromoted by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.free-stock-music.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0): ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.
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3. Santur: Arpegio performed on a Persian santur, recorded with an oktava mk012 mic. Thispiece has been edited into shorter segments, its volume adjusted, and played in different parts of this podcast. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://freesound.org/people/nsmusic/sounds/259692/ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Music available on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://freesound.org/⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Creative Commons / Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0 DEED) ⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ⁠⁠⁠⁠