Members of Congress have officially objected to the results in four of the last six presidential elections, a partisan practice that has been legal for over a century but became much more fraught after a violent mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol last year.
In an effort to prevent another Jan. 6, 2021, bills moving through the House and Senate would make it harder to lodge those objections when Congress counts the electoral votes in a joint session after every presidential election. The move to curtail the objections is part of a larger effort to overhaul the 1800s-era Electoral Count Act and safeguard the integrity of the vote after Trump tried to persuade his allies in Congress to vote against Democrat Joe Biden’s victory and overturn his 2020 defeat.
