But there would be Republican support for ending Congress’s increasingly destabilizing role in presidential elections. Seven conservative GOP Representatives wrote in a Jan. 3 statement last year: “The text of the United States Constitution . . . is clear” that “Congress has one job here: to count electoral votes that have in fact been cast by any state, as designated by those authorized to do so under state law.”

New statutory language could clarify that once legal challenges are over and the Electoral College votes, Congress can’t change the outcome. Disputes in the states would be settled in the states with the judiciary as the best forum to adjudicate. This is what happened in Florida in 2000 in Bush v. Gore. The Supreme Court would probably have intervened in 2020 as well, if there had been competing slates of state electors.

Rewriting or repealing the Electoral Count Act leaves neither party with a partisan advantage. Now is also a good time to pass such legislation, since no one knows who will control each chamber of Congress in 2025.