The Electoral Count Act of 1887 (ECA) is 809 words in 10 long and confusing sentences describing how Congress is meant to certify the election of a U.S. president. It needs amending.
The law was passed after the disputed 1876 election in which Republican Rutherford B. Hayes defeated Democrat Samuel J. Tilden by a single Electoral College vote and backroom deal. That year, three states, Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina, sent competing slates of electors to Congress, both major parties claiming to have won those states.
Close and contentious elections followed in 1880 and 1884, and Congress decided it needed to do something to formally establish procedures and keep the transfer of power orderly.
