With the passage of the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022, democracy was thrown a lifeline. Prompted by the attempt to stop the certification of President-elect Joe Biden after the 2020 election, the new law is designed to fortify the peaceful transfer of power of the presidency by replacing “ambiguous provisions of the 19th-century law.” But do the reforms go far enough?

We are not likely to know the answer to that question until the Supreme Court rules on Moore v. Harper later this year, a case from North Carolina involving a controversial constitutional theory. At issue is whether or not state legislatures have absolute power, with no electoral oversight authority by state courts, to regulate federal elections. Unless the Supreme Court rules to maintain a system of checks and balances, there is no assurance that democracy, as we know it, will not fall by the wayside.

Jane Larkin
Tampa, Fla.

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