It is anticipated that Monday’s congressional joint session to count electoral votes will be far less eventful than the certification four years ago when a violent mob of Trump supporters attempted to halt the count and overturn the results of an election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump is being re-elected this time after winning the 2024 election, which started with Biden as his party’s nominee and finished with Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the bill. As Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, did after the bloodshed ended on January 6, 2021, she will assume the constitutional function of presiding over the certification of her own defeat.
After the winner is formally chosen by the Electoral College in December, the congressional joint session on January 6 every four years is the last stage in confirming a presidential election. As mandated by the Constitution, the meeting consists of many phases.
Examining the collaborative session:
What takes place during a meeting of Congress?
In order to open sealed certificates from each state that holds a record of their electoral votes, Congress is required by federal law to convene on January 6. A unique mahogany box made for the occasion is used to carry the votes into the chamber.
The findings are spoken aloud and an official count is conducted by bipartisan representatives from both chambers. The winner is announced by the vice president, who also serves as the Senate’s president.
From the last time, how has it changed?
Following Trump’s attempts to subvert the certification process and the bloodshed of 2021, Congress toughened the requirements.
Specifically, the 2022 amendment to the Electoral Count Act clarified the vice president’s responsibilities after Trump encouraged Pence to attempt to protest the Republican’s loss, which would have gone much beyond Pence’s ceremonial role. Pence rejected Trump and eventually conceded his own loss. Harris is going to follow suit.
According to the amended law, the vice president is not empowered to decide the outcome on January 6.
It wasn’t the first time vice presidents were forced to oversee their own losses; Harris and Pence weren’t the first. Vice President Al Gore oversaw the 2000 presidential election count in 2001, which he lost to Republican George W. Bush by a slim margin. Gore had to silence a few of the Democrats who objected.
As vice president, Biden oversaw the count that proclaimed Trump the victor in 2017. Additionally, Biden dismissed House Democrats’ arguments that lacked Senate backing.
How does the meeting proceed?
The electoral vote certificates are presented by the presiding officer in alphabetical order of the states.
Members of both parties who were appointed as tellers in the House and Senate then read aloud each certificate before recording and tallying the votes. The presiding officer then declares the winner of the majority of votes for president and vice president.
But what if someone objects?
A politician may take the floor and challenge a state’s vote on any number of grounds once a teller reads the certificate from that state. However, unless the objection is in writing and signed by one-fifth of each chamber, the presiding officer will not consider it.
That criterion is a lot higher than the previous one. One senator and one member of the House were previously all that was needed for an objection to be successful. The 2022 law’s threshold was raised by lawmakers to make challenges more challenging.
The House and Senate have separate sessions to discuss any objections that are above the threshold, and the joint session is suspended if they are unexpected. The objection must be upheld by a simple majority vote in both chambers in order to be sustained. Should they disagree, the initial electoral votes are still counted.
Challenges to the electoral votes in Arizona and Pennsylvania were denied by the House and Senate in 2021.
Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio and Senator Barbara Boxer of California, both Democrats, protested Ohio’s electoral votes in 2005, arguing that there were election irregularities. This was the last time such a complaint had been taken into consideration prior to 2021.
The argument was discussed and dismissed with ease by the House and Senate. This was only the second time that a vote like that had taken place.
What happens when the votes are counted by Congress?
On January 20, the president is sworn in on the west front of the Capitol after Congress verifies the vote.
The joint session is the final formal opportunity to raise concerns outside of a legal challenge. Harris has acknowledged Trump’s victory and never contested it.
