The congressional joint session to depend electoral votes on Monday is predicted to be a lot much less eventful than the certification 4 years in the past that was interrupted by a violent mob of supporters of then-President Donald Trump who tried to cease the depend and overturn the outcomes of an election he misplaced to Democrat Joe Biden.
This time, Trump is returning to workplace after profitable the 2024 election that started with Biden as his get together’s nominee and ended with Vice President Kamala Harris atop the ticket. She is going to preside over the certification of her personal loss, fulfilling the constitutional position in the identical approach that Trump’s vp, Mike Pence, did after the violence subsided on Jan. 6, 2021.
Often a routine affair, the congressional joint session on Jan. 6 each 4 years is the ultimate step in reaffirming a presidential election after the Electoral School formally elects the winner in December. The assembly is required by the Structure and consists of a number of distinct steps.
A take a look at the joint session:
What occurs when Congress meets?
Underneath federal regulation, Congress should meet Jan. 6 to open sealed certificates from every state that include a report of their electoral votes. The votes are introduced into the chamber in particular mahogany containers which are used for the event.
Bipartisan representatives of each chambers learn the outcomes out loud and do an official depend. The vp, as president of the Senate, presides over the session and declares the winner.
The Structure requires Congress to fulfill and depend the electoral votes. If there’s a tie, then the Home decides the presidency, with every congressional delegation having one vote. That hasn’t occurred for the reason that 1800s, and will not occur this time as a result of Trump’s electoral win over Harris was decisive, 312-226.
How has it modified for the reason that final time?
Congress tightened the principles for the certification after the violence of 2021 and Trump’s makes an attempt to usurp the method.
Particularly, the revised Electoral Rely Act handed in 2022 extra explicitly defines the position of the vp after Trump aggressivelypushed Pence to try to object to the Republican’s defeat — an motion that may have gone far past Pence’s ceremonial position. Pence rebuffed Trump and finally gaveled down his personal defeat. Harris will do the identical.
The up to date regulation clarifies that the vp doesn’t have the ability to find out the outcomes on Jan. 6.
Harris and Pence weren’t the primary vice presidents to be put within the uncomfortable place of presiding over their very own defeats. In 2001, Vice President Al Gore presided over the counting of the 2000 presidential election that he narrowly misplaced to Republican George W. Bush. Gore needed to gavel a number of Democrats’ objections out of order.
In 2017, Biden as vp presided over the depend that declared Trump the winner. Biden additionally shot down objections from Home Democrats that didn’t have any Senate help.
How does the session unfold?
The presiding officer opens and presents the certificates of the electoral votes in alphabetical order of the states.
The appointed “tellers” from the Home and Senate, members of each events, then learn every certificates out loud and report and depend the votes. On the finish, the presiding officer pronounces who has gained the bulk votes for each president and vp.
What if there’s an objection?
After a teller reads the certificates from any state, a lawmaker can get up and object to that state’s vote on any grounds. However the presiding officer won’t hear the objection until it’s in writing and signed by one-fifth of every chamber.
That threshold is considerably increased than what got here earlier than. Beforehand, a profitable objection solely required help from one member of the Senate and one member of the Home. Lawmakers raised the edge within the 2022 regulation to make objections harder.
If any objection reaches the edge — one thing not anticipated this time — the joint session suspends and the Home and Senate go into separate classes to contemplate it. For the objection to be sustained, each chambers should uphold it by a easy majority vote. If they don’t agree, the unique electoral votes are counted with no modifications.
In 2021, each the Home and Senate rejected challenges to the electoral votes in Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Earlier than 2021, the final time that such an objection was thought of had been 2005, when Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio and Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, each Democrats, objected to Ohio’s electoral votes, claiming there have been voting irregularities. Each the Home and Senate debated the objection and simply rejected it. It was solely the second time such a vote had occurred.
As soon as Congress counts the votes, what’s subsequent?
After Congress certifies the vote, the president is inaugurated on the west entrance of the Capitol on Jan. 20.
The joint session is the final official likelihood for objections, past any challenges in courtroom. Harris has conceded and by no means disputed Trump’s win.
