The Home and Senate will meet on Monday in a Joint Session of Congress to certify the outcomes of the 2024 presidential vote.
The Capitol riot and contretemps over certification of the 2020 presidential election transformed the quadrennial, usually sleepy affair of certifying the Electoral Faculty right into a full-blown nationwide safety occasion. Congressional safety officers started erecting 10-foot-high fencing across the outer perimeter of the Capitol complicated over the previous few days. Among the fences lengthen past the same old “Capitol Square” which incorporates the Capitol constructing itself. One such fence was all the way in which across the outer boundaries of the Russell Senate Park.
One of many nice ironies within the American political system is that the one who misplaced the race for the presidency usually presides over their very own defeat. On this case, Vice President Harris. Harris stays the Vice President till January 20. That additionally means she continues as President of the Senate.
Others have carried out this onerous job of certifying their very own defeat. Future President Richard Nixon was Vice President when he misplaced to President John F. Kennedy in 1960. Nixon then licensed JFK because the winner in January 1961. Former Vice President Al Gore ceded his election to President George W. Bush after the disputed 2000 election and tumult over which candidate truly gained Florida. Gore was then on the Capitol to seal Bush’s victory in January 2001.
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Dawn gentle hits the U.S. Capitol dome on Thursday, January 2, 2025, because the 119th Congress is about to start Friday. (Invoice Clark/CQ-Roll Name, Inc by way of Getty Photos)
Right here’s what the twelfth Modification to the Structure says about Congress signing off on the election outcomes: “The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted.”
This dictates a Joint Session of Congress. That is the place the Home and Senate meet collectively, concurrently, often within the Home chamber. The Speaker of the Home presides alongside the President of the Senate: on this case, Vice President Harris.
However Harris form of runs the present.
The Home and Senate solely meet in a Joint Session of Congress to obtain the President for State of the Union and to certify the election end result. And because the Home efficiently elected a Speaker on Friday afternoon, the Home and Senate can convene the Joint Session. Home Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will co-preside over the session atop the dais within the Home chamber.
Issues are completely different in comparison with this train 4 years in the past.
The comparatively routine, virtually ceremonial, certification of the Electoral Faculty endlessly modified on January 6, 2021, following the Capitol riot.
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Capitol Police started limiting vehicular visitors on streets across the Capitol complicated early Monday morning. Entry to the Home and Senate Workplace Buildings are restricted to members, workers and guests who’re there are on official enterprise. There’ll solely be a couple of entry factors for pedestrians to the Capitol grounds. Official Capitol excursions are suspended.
Speaker Mike Johnson giving press convention and speech with gavel (Getty Photos)
Johnson will name the Home to order round 1 p.m. EST on Monday. Home Sergeant at Arms Invoice McFarland will announce the arrival of Harris and senators as they enter the Home chamber. Members of the Home Administration Committee and Senate Guidelines Committee will function “tellers” to help within the tabulation of the electoral votes.
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Harris will declare that the Home and Senate are assembly within the Joint Session and announce “that the certificates (of election) are authentic and correct in form.”
Beginning with Alabama, it’s possible that one of many tellers will learn the next:
“The certificate of the electoral vote of the State of Alabama seems to be regular in form and authentic. It appears therefore that Donald John Trump of the State of Florida received nine votes for President and JD Vance of the State of Ohio received nine votes for Vice President.”
And on we go.
In late 2022, lawmakers made a number of adjustments to the 1887 “Electoral Count Act.” Congress initially handed the Electoral Depend Act in response to the disputed election of 1876. A number of states despatched competing slates of electors to Washington. Lawmakers decided there was no formality to tabulating the Electoral Faculty outcomes.
Democrat Samuel Tilden prevailed within the fashionable vote. However President Rutherford B. Hayes gained the White Home – after a particular fee empaneled by Congress introduced him with 20 electoral votes in dispute.
The Presidental Contest In America, Samuel Tilden, The Democratic Candidate and Rutherford Hayes, The Republic Candidate, 1876. (Common Historical past Archive/Common Photos Group by way of Getty Photos)
The 2022 Electoral Depend Reform and Presidential Transition Enchancment Act clarified the function of the Vice President within the Joint Session of Congress. President-elect Trump and different loyalists leaned on then-Vice President Pence to say himself within the course of. Many demanded that he settle for different slates of electors from the states in query. The up to date legislation states that the Vice President’s function is just “ministerial.” The brand new statute says the Vice President lacks the facility “to determine, accept, reject, or otherwise adjudicate or resolve disputes over the proper list of electors, the validity of electors, or the votes of electors.”
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The brand new legislation additionally established an expedited judicial appellate course of for litigation relating to electoral votes. Lastly, the legislation altered how lawmakers themselves can contest a state’s slate of electors through the Joint Session.
The previous system required one Home member and one senator to signal a petition difficult a person state’s electoral slate. In 2021, Republicans deliberate to problem as many as six swing states. They in the end questioned two.
In 2001, a number of members of the Congressional Black Caucus tried to problem Florida’s slate of electors. However that they had no Senate co-sponsor.
FILE: Speaker of the Home Mike Johnson, R-La., talks with reporters within the U.S. Capitol after the final votes of the week on Thursday, September 12, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Name, Inc by way of Getty Photos)
After Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., made her entreaty to query Florida’s electoral votes, Al Gore – once more, presiding over his personal loss – requested if the California Democrat had a Senate cohort.
Waters replied that she didn’t and “did not care.”
Gore then responded with a statesmanlike proclamation that salved the political wounds of the rancorous election he had simply misplaced to President W. Bush.
“The chair will advise that rules do care,” pronounced Gore.
His takedown of Waters triggered an outpouring of bipartisan applause within the Home chamber.
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A query emerged about Ohio’s slate of electoral votes when Congress started certifying the 2004 election in January 2005. However this time, late Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, and former Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., joined forces to compel the Home and Senate to debate and vote individually on Ohio’s electoral slate. However each the Home and Senate rejected their petition.
The 2022 legislation made it more durable to problem a state’s electoral certificates. Now it requires one-fifth of all Home members and one-half of all Senate members to problem what the states ship in.
U.S. Representatives of the 119th Congress are sworn in through the first day of session within the Home Chamber of the U.S. Capitol Constructing on January 03, 2025 in Washington, DC. Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) retained his Speakership within the face of opposition inside his personal occasion because the 119th Congress holds its first session to vote for a brand new Speaker of the Home. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Photos)
The end result of the 2024 election isn’t in dispute. There’s no expectation of anybody forcing extra Congressional opinions of the Electoral Faculty. And regardless of extra precautions, Capitol safety officers usually are not anticipating rallies and positively no violence, not like 2021.
In 2021 – after the riot and two close to fistfights on the Home flooring – Pence licensed the result of the electoral vote simply earlier than 4 a.m. EST on January 7. This yr’s train needs to be wrapped up in about an hour or so. Vice President Harris will announce that Donald Trump gained the election “for a term beginning on the 20th day of January 2025.” She’s going to then dissolve the Joint Session.
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And two weeks later at midday, U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts swears-in Donald John Trump on the West Entrance of the Capitol for his second time period.
