Instructions for certifying presidential elections

The House and Senate A joint session of Congress will convene on Monday to approve the results of the 2024 presidential election.

The Capitol riot and the controversy over the certification of the 2020 presidential election. turned the four-year, often sleepy Electoral College attestation business into a full-fledged national security event. Over the past few days, congressional security personnel have begun erecting a 10-foot fence around the outer perimeter of the Capitol complex. Some of the fences extend beyond the normal “Capitol Square” that includes the Capitol building. One such fence spanned the entire 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 decides his own defeat. In this case, Vice President Harris. Harris remains vice president until January 20. It also means she continues to be president of the Senate.

Others have accomplished this difficult task of witnessing their own defeat. Future President Richard Nixon was vice president when he lost to President John F. Kennedy in 1960. Nixon then declared JFK the winner in January 1961. Former Vice President Al Gore lost his election to President George W. Bush after the disputed 2000 election. and the buzz surrounding which candidate actually won Florida. Then Gore was at the Capitol to seal Bush’s victory in January 2001.

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Here’s what the 12th Amendment to the Constitution says about Congress signing election results: “The President of the Senate, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, shall open all certificates, and the votes shall then be counted.”

It dictates a joint session of Congress. It is where the House and Senate meet at the same time, usually in the chamber of the House of Representatives. The Speaker of the House presides with the President of the Senate: in this case, Vice President Harris.

But Harris kind of runs the show.

The House of Representatives and the Senate meet only for a joint session of Congress to receive the President’s State of the Union address and approve election results. And since the House successfully elected speaker on Friday afternoon the House and Senate may call into Joint Session. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will co-chair the session from the podium on the House floor.

Everything is different compared to this class four years ago.

The relatively routine, almost ceremonial certification of the Electoral College changed forever on January 6, 2021, after a riot at the Capitol.

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Capitol Police began restricting vehicular traffic on streets around 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 be only a few access points to the Capitol grounds for pedestrians. Official tours of the Capitol are suspended.

Johnson will call the House of Representatives around 1:00 PM EST on Monday. House Sergeant-at-Arms Bill McFarland will announce the arrival of Harris and the senators as they enter the House floor. Members of the House Administration Committee and the Senate Rules Committee will serve as “counts” to help count the electoral votes.

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Harris will declare the House and Senate in joint session and declare “that the certificates (of election) are true and correct in form.”

Starting in Alabama, it’s likely that one of the cashiers will read the following:

“The Alabama Election Certificate appears to be normal in form and authentic. So it looks like Donald John Trump of Florida got nine votes for president, and J.D. Vance of Ohio received nine votes for president. vice president”.

And we go.

In late 2022, lawmakers made several changes to the 1887 Counting Election Act. Congress originally enacted the Counting Act in response to the disputed election of 1876. Several states sent competing voter lists to Washington. Lawmakers decided that there are no formalities in summing up the results of the Electoral College.

Democrat Samuel Tilden won the popular vote. But President Rutherford B. Hayes won The White House – after a special committee set up by Congress presented him with 20 disputed electoral votes.

The 2022 Counting Reform and Presidential Term Improvement Act clarified the role of the vice president in a joint session of Congress. President-elect Trump and other loyalists relied on then-Vice President Pence to assert themselves in the process. Many demanded that he adopt alternative voter lists from the respective states. The updated law states that the vice president’s role is simply “ministerial.” The new statute states that the vice president has no authority to “determine, accept, reject, or otherwise decide or resolve controversies concerning the proper list of voters, the validity of voters, or the votes of voters.”

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The new law also established an expedited judicial appeals process for judicial review of electoral votes. Finally, the law changed how lawmakers themselves can challenge state voter rolls during a joint session.

The old system required one member of the House of Representatives and one senator to sign a petition challenging the electoral roll in an individual state. Republicans planned to challenge as many as six swing states in 2021. As a result, they interrogated two.

In 2001, several members of the Congressional Black Caucus tried to challenge Florida’s voter rolls. But they did not have a co-author of the Senate.

After Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., asked to question Florida’s electoral votes, Al Gore — again managing his own loss — asked if the California Democrat had a cohort in the Senate.

Waters replied that she didn’t and “didn’t care.”

Gore then responded with a statesmanlike statement salvaging the political wounds of the bitter election he had just lost to President W. Bush.

“The chairman will tell you what the rules are to do leaving,” Gore said.

His removal of Waters drew a standing ovation from the House floor.

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The issue of voter registration in Ohio arose when, in January 2005, Congress began certifying the 2004 election. But this time, the late Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, and former Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., joined forces to force the House and Senate to separately debate and vote on Ohio’s electoral roll. But both the House of Representatives and the Senate rejected their petition.

The 2022 law made it tougher to challenge state voter IDs. It now takes one-fifth of all the members of the House of Representatives and one-half of all the members of the Senate to challenge what the states send.

The results of the 2024 election are not disputed. Don’t expect anyone to force Congress to conduct additional review of the Electoral College. And despite the extra precautions, Capitol security officials expect no rallies and certainly no violence, unlike in 2021.

In 2021 — after riots and two near-fist fights on the House floor — Pence certified the election results shortly before 4 a.m. on Jan. 7. This year’s exercise should be completed in about an hour. Vice President Harris will announce that Donald Trump has won the election “for the term beginning January 20, 2025.” She will then dissolve the Joint Session.

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And two weeks later, at noon, US Chief Justice John Roberts will be sworn in Donald John Trump on the west front of the Capitol for a second term.