Tom Reed

Bipartisan talks to overhaul the Electoral Count Act are underway in Congress.

The Washington Post reports the efforts began after former president Donald Trump issued a statement saying vice president Mike Pence could have “overturned” the 2020 presidential election.

Congressman Tom Reed said reform of the law is necessary, “It is a law that was adopted 140 years plus, I believe, ago, that is full of ambiguity. It has not been updated given the new election cycles or processes that we utilize in America. And then obviously you saw the confusion that January 6th highlighted.”

The Electoral Count Act governs the congressional certification for the election of the president and vice president.

Reed said the act needs to be brought into the 21st Century, “And make it very clear as to what is the role of Congress in regards to the electoral count, and follow the Constitution, and make that sure our statutory language in Congress reflects that of the 21st Century. And makes it clear as to exactly who makes the decision of who’s going to be the next President of the United States.”

Trump’s claim that a vice president is empowered under the law to summarily reject states’ electoral votes is heavily disputed by legal scholars and officials from both parties.

Top Republicans said they remained open to the discussions. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters the law is “clearly flawed and needs to be updated,” while Minority Whip John Thune suggested Trump’s comments could actually help forge a deal.

Hillary Clinton (left) and Donald Trump.

NEW YORK – In an election in which there apparently were no foregone conclusions, New York proved to be one of few places where conventional wisdom held true in the presidential race: Democrat Hillary Clinton cruised to a win by popular vote with statewide Democratic enrollment on her side; Republican Donald Trump won the geographic battle of the state by picking up 46 county-level victories, primarily upstate.

Clinton received more than 4,143,000 votes in New York (nearly 59 percent), compared to trump receiving 2,637,000 (bout 37.5 percent).  Clinton’s victory in New York gave her 29 of the 228 total electoral votes she received in on Election Day.

Despite winning the popular vote in the U.S. by a margin of 200,000 – Clinton was unable to capture the 270 electoral votes required to become president, as stipulated by the U.S. Constitution.  Instead, it was Donald Trump who won the popular vote in enough states to receive a total of 279 electoral votes.  The Electoral College will cast its votes on Dec. 19.

Clinton’s small geographic pockets of victory include the counties with the largest population centers in the state (Erie County, New York City’s five counties and Albany County, to name a few), boosting her 1.5 million-vote victory over Trump in New York State.

In Chautauqua county, Trump dominated Clinton. Of the roughly 50,000 votes that were cast, Trump picked up 59 percent (29,418) of them.  Meanwhile, Clinton was able to only muster a total of 17,281, or about 35 percent. The total number of registered voters in the county for the 2016 election was 76,846, with 25,863 registered Democrats and 25,247 registered Republicans.

NY Governor Andrew Cuomo

ALBANY – New York state is changing the way it distributes its electoral votes in the national presidential election.

On Tuesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation pledging to award New York’s electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the majority of the national popular vote. Since the founding of the constitution, New York – and nearly every other state in the country – has awarded all its electoral votes to the candidate that won the most votes in the statewide election.

The change is part of the National Popular Vote coalition, an interstate agreement with California, Washington D.C., Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington to award electoral votes to the candidate who garners the most votes across each of the 50 states.

Proponents of reforming how electoral votes are awarded say presidential hopefuls often do not campaign in states where the outcome is already assumed — such as in New York where it is likely the state will vote for the Democratic candidate. Instead, presidential hopefuls focus on “swing states” where the outcome is up for grabs, such as Ohio and Iowa. Battleground states such as Florida, Ohio, Iowa and Virginia hosted two-thirds of the 253 presidential events. Florida, which like New York controls 29 electoral votes, hosted 40 events alone in the 2012 election. New York hosted none.

However, opponents of the Popular Vote initiative say the change will make campaigning in smaller states and rural areas irrelevant, with candidates only focusing on large population bases where the most voters are located. They also say the change would move the country away from a republic and to a more democratic system of government – something the founding fathers were against, claiming that the electoral college system was a check against mob rule.

To go into effect, enough states necessary to elect a president — 270 electoral votes of the possible 538 — must pass and enact identical legislation. With New York’s 29 electoral votes, the interstate compact now has 165 electoral votes, 61 percent of the needed electorates.