Electoral Count Reform Act basics

The 2026 midterms do not choose a president. There is no electoral college on November 3, 2026. The Electoral Count Reform Act still belongs in a midterm library, because the officials and the habits that certify a midterm are the ones that will certify presidential electors in 2028, and because readers meet the phrase in arguments about any close election.

Congress counts the electoral votes in January after a presidential election. The statute that governs that session is 3 U.S.C. § 15. In 2022, Congress rewrote key parts of the old Electoral Count Act of 1887. The vehicle was the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act, a title of a larger bill enacted that December. The reform is often called the Electoral Count Reform Act, or ECRA. The U.S. Code section is the text to read. A commentary is not a substitute.

The reform was aimed at ambiguity. It identifies the governor, unless a state constitution or statute names another official, as the person who issues the certificate of ascertainment naming the electors. It sets a deadline for that certificate. It raises the number of members of Congress who must object before an objection is heard. It says the vice president’s role in the joint session is ministerial. Those are structural rules about papers and about the January session. They do not decide which slate of electors a state sends. Voters and state law decide the slate. The certificate reports it.

Nothing in that statute turns a midterm race into a presidential race. A senator elected in 2026 may be in office for the January 2029 count of 2028 electoral votes. That is a calendar fact about six-year terms. It is not a reason to read a 2026 Senate poll as a forecast of the next presidential election. This site does not make that leap.

Readers who want the mechanics should open the Code and the enrolled bill, then the state’s own certificate process on the secretary of state’s site. The canvass and certification page in this library describes the state step that comes first. The Reform Act assumes that step has a responsible official and a date. It does not replace the state canvass, and it does not authorize a private website to announce electors.