THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, JULY 21, 2022 A13
Consequences of Jan. 6 attack
Senate bills would change Electoral Count Act
A bipartisan group of sena-
tors agreed Wednesday on pro-
posed changes to the Electoral
Count Act, the post-Civil War-
era law for certifying presiden-
tial elections that came under
intense scrutiny after the Jan. 6
attack on the Capitol and Don-
ald Trump’s effort to overturn
the 2020 election.
Long in the making, the
package introduced by the
group led by Sens. Susan Col-
lins of Maine and Joe Man-
chin of West Virginia is made
up of two separate proposals.
One would clarify the way
states submit electors and the
vice president tallies the votes
in Congress. The other would
bolster security for state and
local election officials who
have faced violence and ha-
rassment.
Nolan
Continued from A1
Nolan comes from hum-
ble beginnings. She grew up
in Washington, and her fam-
ily moved around a lot. She
didn’t come from money,
so she worked three jobs
throughout high school. She
had planned to join the mili-
tary while pursuing a college
degree after graduating from
the Redmond Proficiency
Academy in 2020.
Then the first wave of
the pandemic hit. She lost
her jobs, and her priorities
changed.
“My whole world fell apart
in my eyes,” she said.
Then she found Kitty
Lauman, a horse trainer in
Prineville. On a whim, No-
lan acted on a childhood
desire to learn more about
horses. She decided to try
working with horses for a
year. It only took a month
“We have developed legislation that establishes clear
guidelines for our system of certifying and counting
electoral votes”
“From the beginning, our
bipartisan group has shared a
vision of drafting legislation to
fix the flaws of the archaic and
ambiguous Electoral Count
Act of 1887,” Collins, Manchin
and the other 14 senators said
in a joint statement.
“We have developed leg-
islation that establishes clear
guidelines for our system of
certifying and counting elec-
toral votes,” the group wrote.
“We urge our colleagues in
both parties to support these
simple, commonsense re-
forms.”
Both Senate Majority
Leader Chuck Schumer and
Senate Republican leader
Mitch McConnell have sig-
naled support for the bipar-
tisan group, but the final leg-
islative package will undergo
careful scrutiny.
Votes are not likely before
BY LISA MASCARO
Associated Press
— Bipartisan group proposing changes to electoral college count
fall. But with broad support
from the group of 16 sena-
tors, seven Democrats and
nine Republicans, who have
worked behind closed doors
for months with the help of
outside experts, serious con-
sideration is assured.
In a statement, Matthew
Weil, executive director of the
Democracy Program at the Bi-
partisan Policy Center, called
the framework a “critical step”
in shoring up ambiguities in
the Electoral Count Act.
After Trump lost the 2020
election, the defeated presi-
dent orchestrated an unprec-
edented attempt to challenge
rity, would double the federal
penalties to up to two years
in prison for individuals who
“threaten or intimidate elec-
tion officials, poll watchers,
voters or candidates,” accord-
ing to the summary.
It also would seek to im-
prove the way the U.S. Postal
Service handles election mail
and “provide guidance to states
to improve their mail-in bal-
lot processes.” Mail-in ballots
and the role of the Postal Ser-
vice came under great scrutiny
during the 2020 election.
An Associated Press re-
view of potential cases of voter
fraud in six battleground
states found no evidence of
widespread fraud that could
change the outcome of the
election. A separate AP review
of drop boxes used for mailed
ballots also found no signifi-
cant problems.
for her to fall in love with the
country lifestyle.
Now she spends her days,
sunup to sundown, in the
dirt.
“There’s not a day that
goes by that I’m not with
horses,” she said.
Lauman was a catalyst in
Nolan’s pursuit of the rodeo
queen title. Lauman was ro-
deo royalty herself several
decades ago.
In order to thrive with
Lauman and with the
horses, Nolan had to ad-
mit that she knew nothing
there. In order to find her
strengths, she had to admit
her shortcomings.
This is what drives her as
rodeo queen, too.
“I wanted to show peo-
ple that even though I didn’t
grow up surrounded by all
of this, I can still do it,” No-
lan said.
█
541-633-2160
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Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin
4-H and FFA member Lexee Wittenberg, 17, of Culver, washes her steer, Cuervo, on Wednesday at the Jefferson County Fair in Madras.
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the electors sent from bat-
tleground states to the joint
session of Congress on Jan. 6,
when the vice president pre-
sides over certification.
Under the proposed
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