WASHINGTON – All eyes will probably be on the nation’s capital Monday as Congress certifies the presidential election.
4 years in the past, a mob of President Trump’s supporters stormed Capitol Hill to cease Congress from counting electoral votes for Joe Biden. To forestall a repeat, the Secretary of Homeland Safety declared Jan. 6 as a Nationwide Particular Safety Occasion, one thing that has by no means been executed earlier than.
Many in Washington D.C. requested the proceedings, which primarily ensures that many safety measures will probably be in place because the certification course of takes place.
These measures have been mentioned at a information convention final week and embrace enhancing bodily safety measures, rising patrols, including extra officers, and coordinating with outdoors accomplice companies. There may even be highway closures.
“Our nation’s capitol is ready to make sure the legislative course of will proceed with out disruption and our authorities may have a peaceable switch of energy,” stated Chief Thomas Manger of the US Capitol Police.
Normally 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 College formally elects the winner in December. The assembly is required by the Structure and contains a number of distinct steps.
A have a look at the joint session:
What occurs when Congress meets?
Underneath federal regulation, Congress should meet on Jan. 6 to open sealed certificates from every state that comprise a report of their electoral votes. The votes are introduced into the chamber in particular mahogany packing containers which can be used for the event.
Bipartisan representatives of each chambers learn the outcomes out loud and do an official rely. The vp, as president of the Senate, presides over the session and declares the winner.
The Structure requires Congress to satisfy and rely 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 received’t 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 rules for the certification after the violence of 2021 and Trump’s makes an attempt to usurp the method.
Specifically, the revised Electoral Rely Act passed in 2022 extra explicitly defines the position of the vp after Trump aggressively pushed 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 in the end gaveled down his personal defeat. Harris will do the identical.
The up to date regulation clarifies that the vp doesn’t have the facility 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 rely that declared Trump the winner. Biden additionally shot down objections from Home Democrats that didn’t have any Senate assist.
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 rely the votes. Nevertheless the top, the presiding officer pronounces who has received 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 rise up and object to that state’s vote on any grounds. Nevertheless, 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 greater than what got here earlier than. Beforehand, a profitable objection solely required assist 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 think about 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-about 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 probability for objections, past any challenges in courtroom. Harris has conceded and by no means disputed Trump’s win.
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