The House and Senate will meet in a joint session of Congress on Monday to certify the results of the 2024 presidential election.
The Insurrection at the Capitol and doubts over the certification of the 2020 presidential election turned the quadrennial, often sleepy issue of certifying the Electoral College into a full-blown national security event. Congressional security officials in recent days began erecting 10-foot-tall fencing around the perimeter of the Capitol complex. Some fences extend beyond the usual “Capitol Square,” which includes the Capitol building itself. One such fence ran all the way around the outer limits of Russell Senate Park.
One of the great ironies of the American political system is that the person who lost the race for president often presides over his own defeat. In this case Vice President Harris. Harris will remain vice president until January 20. This also means that she will remain president of the Senate.
Others have undertaken this daunting task of realizing 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 ceded his election to President George W. Bush after the disputed 2000 election and uproar over which candidate actually won Florida. Gore was next at the Capitol to seal Bush’s victory in January 2001.
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Sunrise light falls on the dome of the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, January 2, 2025, as the 119th Congress begins on Friday. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Here is what the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution says about Congress signing the 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. “
This dictates a joint session of Congress. This is where the House and Senate meet simultaneously, usually in the House Chamber. The Speaker of the House of Representatives sits together with the President of the Senate: in this case, Vice President Harris.
But Harris basically runs the show.
The House and Senate meet in a joint session of Congress only to receive the President’s State of the Union address and certify the election results. And since the House of Representatives successfully elected a chairman The House and Senate can convene the Joint Session on Friday afternoon. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will co-chair the session from atop the podium in the House chamber.
Things are different from this exercise four years ago.
The relatively routine, almost ceremonial, certification of the Electoral College changed forever on January 6, 2021, after the riot at the Capitol.
Capitol Police began restricting vehicle traffic on the streets around the Capitol complex early Monday morning. Access to the House and Senate office buildings is limited to members, staff and visitors on official business. There will be only a few pedestrian access points to the Capitol grounds. Official Capitol tours have been suspended.
Speaker Mike Johnson gives press conference and speech with gavel (Getty Images)
Johnson will call the House on Monday around 1:00 PM EST to put things in order. House Sergeant at Arms Bill McFarland will announce the arrival of Harris and senators as they enter the House chamber. Members of the House Administration Committee and Senate Committee will serve as “counters” to help tabulate the electoral votes.
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Harris will declare that the House and Senate will meet in joint session and announce “that the (election) certificates are authentic and correct in form.”
Starting with Alabama, it is likely that one of the tellers will read:
“The Certificate of Electoral Ballot of the State of Alabama appears to be regular in form and authentic. It therefore appears 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 several changes to the 1887 “Electoral Count Act.” Congress initially passed the Electoral Count Act in response to the disputed election of 1876. Multiple states sent competing electors to Washington. Lawmakers noted that there was no formality in tabulating the Electoral College results.
Democrat Samuel Tilden prevailed in the popular vote. But President Rutherford B. Hayes won White House – after a special committee constituted by Congress presented him with twenty disputed electoral votes.
The presidential contest in America, Samuel Tilden, the Democratic candidate and Rutherford Hayes, the candidate for the Republic, 1876. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group 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 stand up for themselves. Many demanded that he accept alternative electoral lists from the states involved. The updated law specifies that the vice president’s role is simply “ministerial.” The new statute says the vice president does not have the power “to determine, accept, reject, or otherwise arbitrate or resolve any dispute concerning the proper slate of electors, the validity of electors, or the votes of electors.”
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The new law also introduced an expedited judicial appeals process for electoral vote lawsuits. Finally, the law changed the way lawmakers themselves can challenge a state’s electoral roll during the joint session.
The old system required one member of the House of Representatives and one senator to sign a petition challenging an individual state’s electoral slate. In 2021, Republicans planned to challenge as many as six swing states. They ended up interrogating two.
In 2001, several members of the Congressional Black Caucus attempted to challenge Florida’s voter rolls. But they had no Senate co-sponsor.
FILE: House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., talks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol following the final votes of the week on Thursday, September 12, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
After Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., had made her plea to cast doubt on Florida’s electoral votes, asked Al Gore — again presiding over his own loss — whether the California Democrat had a cohort in the Senate.
Waters responded that she didn’t care and that she “didn’t care.”
Gore responded with a statesmanlike proclamation that healed the political wounds of the rancorous election he had just lost to President W. Bush.
“The chairman will recommend those rules Doing care,” Gore said.
His takedown of Waters drew an outpouring of applause from both parties in the House chamber.
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A question arose about the number of electoral votes in Ohio 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-Calif. force the House and Senate to separately debate and vote on Ohio’s electoral slate. But both the House of Representatives and the Senate rejected their request.
The 2022 law made it more difficult to challenge a state’s election certifications. Now it is necessary for one-fifth of all members of the House of Representatives and half of all members of the Senate to question what the states submit.
U.S. representatives of the 119th Congress are sworn in during the first day of session in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol Building on January 3, 2025 in Washington, DC. Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) retained his chairmanship despite opposition within his own party as the 119th Congress held its first session to vote for a new Speaker of the House of Representatives. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The outcome of the 2024 election is not in question. No one is expected to force additional Electoral College reviews by Congress. And despite additional precautions, Capitol security officials expect no demonstrations and certainly no violence, unlike in 2021.
In 2021 – after the riot and two near-fisticuffs in the House of Representatives – Pence certified the electoral vote results just before 4 a.m. EST on January 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 a term beginning January 20, 2025.” It 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 side of the Capitol for his second term.
