The House and Senate will convene a joint session of Congress on Monday to certify the results of the 2024 presidential election.
The riot at the Capitol and the controversy surrounding the certification of the 2020 presidential election turned the quadrennial, often dull Electoral College certification event into a full-blown national security incident. Over the past few days, congressional security officials began erecting 10-foot-tall fencing around the perimeter of the Capitol. Some of the fences extend beyond the usual “Capitol Square,” which includes the Capitol itself. There has always been one of these fences on the perimeter of Russell Senate Park.
One of the great ironies of the American political system is that those who lose in presidential campaigns often lose themselves. In this case, Vice President Harris. Harris will serve as vice president until January 20.
Others have had the difficult task of proving their failure. Future President Richard Nixon served as vice president when he lost to President John F. Kennedy in 1960. Al Gore lost the election to President George W. Bush after the disputed 2000 election, and there was debate over which candidate actually won Florida. In January 2001, Gore declared Bush the winner at the Capitol.
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The light of sunrise illuminates the dome of the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, January 2, 2025, as the 119th Congress opens on Friday. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution regarding Congress signing the election results reads: “The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all certificates, and the votes shall then be counted.”
This requires a joint session of Congress. This is where the House and Senate meet simultaneously, usually in the House Chamber. The Speaker of the House presides, along with the President of the Senate: in this case, Vice President Harris.
But Harris is somewhat in control.
The House and Senate meet only in a joint session of Congress to receive the president for his State of the Union address and to certify the election results. With the House of Representatives successfully electing a speaker on Friday afternoon, the House and Senate can convene into a joint session. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, will co-chair from the House dais.
Things are different compared to this exercise four years ago.
After the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021, the relatively routine, almost ceremonial approach to Electoral College certification changed forever.
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Capitol Police began restricting vehicle traffic on streets around the Capitol early Monday morning. Access to House and Senate office buildings is limited to members, staff and visitors conducting official business. There are only a few entrances for pedestrians to enter the Capitol grounds. Official tours of the Capitol are suspended.
Speaker Mike Johnson holds a press conference and delivers a speech with a gavel (Getty Images)
Johnson will call the House of Representatives to order Monday around 1 p.m. ET. House Sergeant-at-Arms Bill McFarland will announce Harris and senators as they enter the House chamber. Members of the House Administration Committee and the Senate Rules Committee will serve as “counters” and assist in counting the electoral votes.
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Harris will announce that the House and Senate are in joint session and declare that “the (election) certificate is authentic and correct.”
Starting in Alabama, one of the tellers might read the following:
“Alabama’s electoral vote certification appears to be formal and authentic. Therefore, it appears that Donald John Trump of Florida received nine presidential votes and J.D. Vance of Ohio received nine. A presidential vote.
Let’s go ahead.
In late 2022, lawmakers made several changes to the Electoral Count Act of 1887. Congress originally passed the Electoral Count Act in response to the disputed election of 1876. Lawmakers argued that there was no formal process for tabulating the Electoral College results.
Democrat Samuel Tilden won the popular vote. But President Rutherford B. Hayes won the White House—a special committee formed by Congress gave him 20 disputed electoral votes.
The Campaign for President of the United States, Democratic Candidate Samuel Tilden and Republican Candidate Rutherford Hayes, 1876. (Universal History Archives/Universal Photo Group, Getty Images)
The Election Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022 clarifies the role of the Vice President in the joint session of Congress. President-elect Trump and other loyalists relied on then-Vice President Mike Pence to safeguard their positions in the process. Many called for him to accept alternative slates of electors from the states in question. The updated law stipulates that the vice president’s role is only “ministerial.” The new statute states that the vice president does not have the authority to “determine, accept, reject, or otherwise adjudicate or resolve disputes concerning the proper slate of electors, the validity of electors, or the electoral votes.”
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The new law also establishes an expedited judicial appeals process for electoral vote lawsuits. Finally, the law changes how lawmakers themselves can raise objections to a state’s slate of electors during a joint session.
The old system required a member of the House of Representatives and a senator to sign a petition challenging a single state’s electoral slate. In 2021, the Republican Party plans to challenge as many as six swing states. They ended up asking two people.
In 2001, several members of the Congressional Black Caucus attempted to challenge Florida’s electoral roll. But they have no Senate co-sponsors.
FILE: Louisiana House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks with reporters at the U.S. Capitol after the final vote of the week, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
After Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., requested a challenge to Florida’s electoral votes, Al Gore once again asked the California Democrat if he had lost the election. Senate supporter.
Waters responded that she had not and “didn’t care.”
Gore then issued a statesmanlike manifesto that eased the political trauma of the hostile election he had just lost to President Bush.
“The Chairman will propose rules Do Care,” Gore said.
His crackdown on Waters sparked bipartisan applause in the House.
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When Congress began certifying the 2004 election in January 2005, questions arose about Ohio’s electoral vote list. and former Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., to force separate debates and votes in the House and Senate on Ohio’s slate of electors. But both the House and Senate rejected their petition.
The 2022 law makes it harder to challenge state election certificates. Now, one-fifth of the House and one-half of the Senate are required to challenge proposals submitted by states.
United States representatives to the 119th Congress were sworn in on the first day of office in the House Chamber of the United States Capitol Building in Washington, DC, on January 3, 2025. The 119th Congress held its first session to vote for a new House Speaker, with Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) retaining the speakership despite opposition within his party. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The results of the 2024 election are not in dispute. No one is expected to force Congress to conduct additional scrutiny of the Electoral College. Despite the extra precautions, Capitol security officials do not anticipate a rally, and certainly no violence, unlike in 2021.
In 2021, after riots and two near-fights on the House floor, Pence certified the electoral vote results just before 4 a.m. ET on January 7. Vice President Harris will declare Donald Trump the winner of the election “for a term beginning January 20, 2025.” She will then dissolve the joint meeting.
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Two weeks later at noon, U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts swore in Donald John Trump for his second term on the West Front of the Capitol.
