Gallego Votes to Protect America’s Electoral System
Washington, DC – Rep. Ruben Gallego (AZ-07) today voted to protect America’s electoral system by supporting the Presidential Election Reform Act.
Statement from Rep. Ruben Gallego (AZ-07):
“The 2020 election revealed just how far extremist Republicans are willing to go to overthrow our democracy if their candidate doesn’t win. We know they haven’t given up their efforts of causing chaos in our electoral system for future elections, so we must do what we can now to prevent bad-faith actors from succeeding. The Presidential Election Reform Act is a much-needed step to protecting our voting systems, but we must continue pushing for legislation that reinforces Americans’ voting rights and makes sure these extremists come nowhere close to succeeding in future.”
The January 6th insurrection was based on the lie that electoral votes from certain states – including Arizona – were fraudulent and that the Vice President could refuse to count those votes. The Presidential Election Reform Act upholds the intent of the Constitution and strengthens the Electoral Count Act by:
- Clarifying the Vice President’s role is simply to count the electoral votes and that they have no authority to reject or delay the count.
- Narrowing the grounds on which a Member of Congress can object to electors and raising the threshold of how many members must support an objection for it to be heard by Congress.
- Ensuring Congress receives one accurate electoral certificate from each state and providing for the event that a governor refuses to certify the lawful results of a presidential election.
- Preventing state legislatures from passing laws that would retroactively affect the results of an election.
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Rep. Ruben Gallego is a Marine Corps combat veteran who served in Iraq. He serves on the House Armed Services Committee, the House Natural Resources Committee, and the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs