A user’s manual to certifying the presidential election

The House and Senate will meet on Monday in a Joint Session of Congress to certify the results of the 2024 presidential vote.

The Capitol riot and contretemps over certification of the 2020 presidential election converted the quadrennial, often sleepy affair of certifying the Electoral College into a full-blown national security event. Congressional security officials began erecting 10-foot-high fencing around the outer perimeter of the Capitol complex over the past few days. Some of the fences extend beyond the usual "Capitol Square" which includes the Capitol building itself. One such fence was all the way around the outer boundaries of the Russell Senate Park.

One of the great ironies in the American political system is that the person who lost the race for the presidency often presides over their own defeat. In this case, Vice President Harris. Harris remains the Vice President until January 20. That also means she continues as President of the Senate. 

Others have performed this onerous task of certifying their own 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 ceded his election to President George W. Bush after the disputed 2000 election and tumult over which candidate actually won Florida. Gore was then 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 off on the election results: "The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, 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 only meet in a Joint Session of Congress to receive the President for State of the Union and to certify the election outcome. And since the House successfully elected a Speaker on Friday afternoon, the House and Senate can convene the Joint Session. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will co-preside over the session atop the dais in the House chamber.

Things are different compared to this exercise four years ago.

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

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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 are limited to members, staff and visitors who are there are on official business. There will only be a few access points for pedestrians to the Capitol grounds. Official Capitol tours are suspended.

Johnson will call the House to order around 1 p.m. EST on Monday. 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 Rules Committee will serve as "tellers" to assist in the tabulation of the electoral votes.

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Harris will declare that the House and Senate are meeting in the Joint Session and announce "that the certificates (of election) are authentic and correct in form."

Starting with Alabama, it’s likely that one of the tellers will read the following:

"The certificate of the electoral vote of the State of Alabama seems to be regular in form and authentic. It appears therefore 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 slates of electors to Washington. Lawmakers determined there was no formality to tabulating the Electoral College results.

Democrat Samuel Tilden prevailed in the popular vote. But President Rutherford B. Hayes won the White House – after a special commission empaneled by Congress presented him with 20 electoral votes in dispute.

The 2022 Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act clarified the role of the Vice President in the Joint Session of Congress. President-elect Trump and other loyalists leaned on then-Vice President Pence to assert himself in the process. Many demanded that he accept alternative slates of electors from the states in question. The updated law states that the Vice President’s role is simply "ministerial." The new statute says the Vice President lacks the power "to determine, accept, reject, or otherwise adjudicate or resolve disputes over the proper list of electors, the validity of electors, or the votes of electors."

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The new law also established an expedited judicial appellate process for litigation regarding electoral votes. Finally, the law altered how lawmakers themselves can contest a state’s slate of electors during the Joint Session.

The old system required one House member 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 ultimately questioned two.

In 2001, multiple members of the Congressional Black Caucus tried to challenge Florida’s slate of electors. But they had no Senate co-sponsor.

After Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., made her entreaty to question Florida’s electoral votes, Al Gore – again, presiding over his own loss – asked if the California Democrat had a Senate cohort.

Waters replied that she did not and "did not care."

Gore then responded with a statesmanlike proclamation that salved the political wounds of the rancorous election he had just lost to President W. Bush.

"The chair will advise that rules do care," pronounced Gore.

His takedown of Waters triggered an outpouring of bipartisan applause in the House chamber.

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A question emerged about Ohio’s slate of electoral votes when Congress began certifying the 2004 election in January 2005. But this time, late Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, and former Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., joined forces to compel the House and Senate to debate and vote separately on Ohio’s electoral slate. But both the House and Senate rejected their petition.

The 2022 law made it tougher to challenge a state’s electoral certificates. Now it requires one-fifth of all House members and one-half of all Senate members to challenge what the states send in.

The outcome of the 2024 election is not in dispute. There’s no expectation of anyone forcing additional Congressional reviews of the Electoral College. And despite additional precautions, Capitol security officials are not anticipating rallies and certainly no violence, unlike 2021.

In 2021 – after the riot and two near fistfights on the House floor – Pence certified the outcome of the electoral vote just before 4 a.m. EST on January 7. This year’s exercise should be wrapped up in about an hour or so. Vice President Harris will announce that Donald Trump won the election "for a term beginning on the 20th day of January 2025." She will then dissolve the Joint Session.

And two weeks later at noon, U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts swears-in Donald John Trump on the West Front of the Capitol for his second term.