One hundred and twenty-five years ago, D. Appleton & Co. was advertising a book that documented the debate over, as the ad read, “How shall the votes be counted?” The ad appeared in PW while the 1876 presidential election was still being disputed. (Spoiler alert: Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was eventually declared the winner over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden.) To try to remove ambiguities about how to determine the outcome of a presidential election, Congress passed the Electoral Count Act in 1887. Judging by the events of 2020, the law wasn’t completely successful, and Congress is now at work on reforming it.