shortly after the election, the nazis pushed through the enabling act, which allowed the cabinet–in practice, hitler–to enact laws without the involvement of the reichstag, effectively giving hitler dictatorial powers. since the bill was effectively a constitutional amendment, a quorum of two-thirds of the entire reichstag had to be present in order to formally call up the bill. leaving nothing to chance, reichstag president hermann göring did not count the kpd seats for purposes of obtaining the required quorum. this led historian richard j. evans to contend that the enabling act had been passed in a manner contrary to law. the nazis did not need to count the kpd deputies for purposes of getting a supermajority of two-thirds of those deputies present and voting. however, evans argued, not counting the kpd deputies for purposes of a quorum amounted to "refusing to recognize their existence," and was thus "an illegal act".