The bipartisan accord to reform the Electoral Count Act of 1887 is a laudable attempt to clarify and regularize the presidential vote-certifying process. But they haven’t quite got it yet. It still needs improvement.

While wisely eliminating all crazy notions that the vice president enjoys any discretion in counting certified electoral votes sent to Congress, the new proposal unfortunately could be misinterpreted as providing discretionary power to each state’s governor. It also contains one apparent and important self-contradiction.