A joint session of Congress to count the electoral votes on Monday was interrupted four years ago by a violent mob of supporters of then-President Donald Trump who tried to stop the counting and overturn the election results. It is expected that there will be far less disruption than certification. He lost the election to Democrat Joe Biden.
This time, Trump will return to the presidency after winning the 2024 election, which started with Biden as the party’s nominee and ended with Vice President Kamala Harris at the top. She will preside over her own loss certification, fulfilling a constitutional role in the same way that President Trump’s Vice President Mike Pence did after the violence subsided on January 6, 2021.
The joint session of Congress, usually an annual event held every four years on January 6, is the final step in reaffirming the presidential election after the Electoral College formally selects the winner in December. . This conference is constitutionally mandated and involves several different steps.
Joint session:
What happens when Congress meets?
Under federal law, Congress must open the sealed certificate containing each state’s electoral vote record on January 6th. The votes are brought to the chamber in a special mahogany box used for the occasion.
Bipartisan representatives from both chambers will read the results and conduct the official tally. The Vice President, as President of the Senate, presides over the session and declares the winner.
The Constitution requires Congress to gather and count the electors. In case of a tie, the House of Representatives decides the presidency by giving each Congressional delegation one vote. Something like this hasn’t happened since the 1800s, and it won’t happen again this time. That’s because Trump’s electoral victory over Harris was decisive, 312-226.
What has changed since last time?
Following the 2021 riots and President Trump’s attempts to usurp the process, Congress tightened the rules for certification.
In particular, the revised Electoral Tabulation Act passed in 2022 more clearly defines the vice president’s role after President Trump actively encouraged Pence to oppose the Republican loss. , this was an act that went far beyond Pence’s ceremonial role. Mr. Pence rejected Mr. Trump and ultimately conceded his defeat. Harris would do the same.
The revised law makes it clear that the vice president has no authority to decide the outcome on January 6th.
Harris and Pence are not the first vice presidents to be put in the uncomfortable position of presiding over their own defeat. In 2001, Vice President Al Gore presided over vote counting for the 2000 presidential election, which he narrowly lost to Republican George W. Bush. Mr. Gore had to overcome out-of-order objections from several Democratic senators.
In 2017, as vice president, Biden presided over the tally that declared Trump the winner. Biden also fought off opposition from House Democrats, who have no support in the Senate.
How do sessions unfold?
The presiding officer opens and presents the certificates of electoral votes in alphabetical order by state.
Then a “reporter” appointed by the House and Senate, members of both parties, reads each certificate aloud and records and counts the votes. Finally, the chair announces the person who received a majority of votes for both president and vice president.
What happens if there is a dispute?
After a teller reads any state’s certificate, a lawmaker can stand up and object to that state’s vote for any reason. However, the Speaker may not hear an objection unless it is in writing and signed by one-fifth of each house.
That threshold is significantly higher than before. Previously, a successful challenge only required support from one senator and one representative. Lawmakers raised the bar for the 2022 law to make it more difficult to challenge.
If any threshold of objections is reached, which was unexpected in this case, the joint session will be suspended and the House and Senate will consider the bill in separate sessions. For a dissenting opinion to be upheld, both chambers must support it with a simple majority. If you disagree, your original electoral votes will continue to be counted.
In 2021, the House and Senate rejected challenges to the electoral votes of Arizona and Pennsylvania.
The last time such a challenge was considered before 2021 was in 2005, when Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio and Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, both Democrats, argued that the voting was fraudulent. objected to Ohio’s electoral votes. Both the House and Senate debated the objections and simply rejected them. This is the second time such a vote has taken place.
Once Congress counts the votes, what’s next?
After Congress approves the vote, the president will be sworn in on January 20 on the West Front of the Capitol.
The joint conference is the last official opportunity to raise a challenge beyond a court challenge. Harris acknowledged this and never disputed Trump’s victory.
