the House of Representatives and Senate On Monday, Congress will meet in a joint session to ratify the results of the 2024 presidential elections.
the Capitol riot Disagreements over the certification of the 2020 presidential election have also turned the four-year Electoral College certification process into a full-fledged national security event. Congressional security officials began erecting a 10-foot fence around the outer perimeter of the Capitol complex over the past few days. Some of the walls extend beyond the usual “Capitol Square,” which includes the Capitol building itself. One such fence was all the way around the outer boundary of Russell Senate Park.
One of the great ironies of the American political system is that the person who loses the presidential race often presides over his defeat. In this case, Vice President Harris. Harris remains vice president until January 20. This also means that she will continue as Senate President.
Others have undertaken the arduous task of proving their defeat. Future President Richard Nixon was vice president when he lost to President John F. Kennedy in 1960. Nixon then certified JFK as the winner in January 1961. Former Vice President Al Gore conceded his election to President George W. Bush after the disputed 2000 election and Buzz about which candidate actually won Florida. Al Gore was then in the Capitol building to announce Bush's victory in January 2001.
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Sunrise light hits the dome of the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, January 2, 2025, as the 119th Congress is scheduled to begin its work on Friday. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Here's what the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution says about Congress signing off on election results: “The President of the Senate, in the presence of the Senate and the House of Representatives, shall open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted.”
This dictates a joint session of Congress. This is where the House and Senate meet together, simultaneously, usually in the House chamber. The Speaker of the House presides alongside the President of the Senate: in this case, Vice President Harris.
But Harris kind of runs the show.
The House and Senate meet only in a joint session of Congress to receive the Chairman of the State of the Union and certify the election result. And since home The Speaker of Parliament was successfully elected On Friday afternoon, the House and Senate could hold a joint session. House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Los Angeles, will co-chair the session on the House floor.
Things are different compared to this exercise four years ago.
The relatively routine, almost ceremonial, certification process of the Electoral College changed forever on January 6, 2021, in the wake of the Capitol riot.
Capitol Police began restricting vehicular traffic on streets surrounding the Capitol complex early Monday morning. Access to the House and Senate office buildings is restricted to members, staff, and visitors who are there on official business. There will only be a few pedestrian access points to the Capitol grounds. Official tours of the Capitol have been suspended.
Speaker Mike Johnson holds a press conference and delivers a gavel speech (Getty Images)
Johnson will call the House of Representatives to ask for the order around 1 p.m. EST on Monday. House Sergeant at Arms Bill McFarland will announce the arrival of Harris and the senators as they enter the House chamber. Members of the House Administration Committee and the Senate Rules Committee will serve as “counters” to help tabulate the electoral votes.
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Harris will announce that the House and Senate are meeting in joint session and declare “the (election) certificates to be authentic and true in form.”
Starting in Alabama, a teller will likely read the following:
“The Alabama Electoral Vote Certificate appears to be regular in format and original. It therefore appears that Donald John Trump of Florida received nine votes for President, and J.D. Vance of Ohio received nine votes for Vice President.”
And we go.
In late 2022, lawmakers made several changes to the Canvassing Act of 1887. Congress initially passed the Canvassing Act in response to the disputed election of 1876. Multiple states sent competing slates of electors to Washington. Lawmakers decided that there were no formalities for tabulating the Electoral College results.
Democrat Samuel Tilden won the popular vote. But President Rutherford B. Hayes won the presidency The white house – After a special committee formed by Congress presented him with 20 disputed electoral votes.
Presidential contest in America, Samuel Tilden, Democratic nominee and Rutherford Hayes, Republican nominee, 1876. (World History Archive/World Image Collection via Getty Images)
The Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022 clarified the role of the Vice President in the joint session of Congress. President-elect Trump and other loyalists relied on then-Vice President Pence to assert himself in the process. Many demanded the acceptance of alternative lists of voters from the states concerned. The updated law stipulates that the role of the vice president is simply a “ministerial” role. The new law states that the vice president lacks the authority to “determine, accept, reject, adjudicate, or otherwise resolve disputes over the correct list of electors, the health of electors, or the votes of electors.”
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The new law also created an expedited judicial appeals process for litigating electoral votes. Finally, the law changed how legislators themselves could compete for a state's slate of electors during the joint session.
The old system required one member of the House of Representatives and one member of the Senate to sign a petition challenging each state's electoral roll. In 2021, Republicans plan to challenge as many as six swing states. They eventually interrogated two.
In 2001, several members of the Congressional Black Caucus attempted to challenge Florida's voter slate. But they had no co-sponsor in the Senate.
FILE: House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Los Angeles, speaks with reporters at the U.S. Capitol after the final vote of the week on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
After Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., asked her plea to cast doubt on Florida's electoral votes, Al Gore—again, whose loss he oversaw—asked whether the California Democrat had a line of senators.
Waters responded that she didn't and “didn't care.”
Then Al Gore responded with a statesmanlike declaration that healed the political wounds from the nasty election he had just lost to President W. Bush.
“The President will advise on these rules He does Care,” pronounced gore.
His dismissal of Waters sparked a wave of bipartisan applause on the House floor.
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A question about Ohio's tally of electoral votes arose when Congress began certifying the 2004 election in January 2005. But this time, the late Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, and former Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Ohio, joined forces. California, in order to force the House and Senate to discuss and vote on Ohio's electoral roll separately. But the House of Representatives and the Senate rejected their petition.
The 2022 law made it difficult to challenge state election certificates. Now it takes a fifth of all members of the House and half of all senators to challenge what the states send.
Representatives of the United States to the 119th Congress are sworn in during the first day of session in the House Chamber of the US Capitol on January 3, 2025 in Washington, DC. Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Los Angeles) has retained his position as speaker in the face of opposition within his party, as the 119th Congress holds its first session to vote on a new Speaker of the House. (Chip Somodevila/Getty Images)
The results of the 2024 elections are not in dispute. There is no expectation of anyone to force additional reviews by Congress of the Electoral College. Despite the extra precautions, Capitol security officials do not expect marches and certainly no violence, unlike in 2021.
In 2021 — after riots and two fistfights on the House floor — Pence certified the result of the electoral vote just before 4 a.m. EST on January 7. This year's process is scheduled to end in about an hour or so. Vice President Harris will declare Donald Trump the winner of the election “for a period beginning on January 20, 2025.” You will then dissolve the joint session.
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Two weeks later, at noon, Chief Justice John Roberts was sworn in Donald John Trump On the West Front of the Capitol for his second term.
