The House and Senate will meet on Monday in a joint session of Congress to confirm the results of the 2024 presidential election.
The The Capitoline Rebellion and doubts about the confirmation of the 2020 presidential election turned the four-year, often dormant Electoral College confirmation affair into a real national security event. Congressional security officials began erecting 10-foot-tall fences 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 around the outer boundaries 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 overcomes his own defeat. In this case, Vice President Harris. Harris will remain vice president until January 20. This also means that she continues to hold the position of President of the Senate.
Others have performed this difficult task of confirming their own defeat. Future President Richard Nixon was running for president when he lost to President John F. Kennedy in 1960. Nixon then confirmed JFK as the winner in January 1961. Former Vice President Al Gore ceded his pick to President George W. Bush after the disputed 2000 election and the uproar over which candidate actually won Florida. Gore was then at the Capitol to seal Bush’s victory in January 2001.
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Light from sunrise hits the dome of the US Capitol on Thursday, January 2, 2025, as the 119th Congress is set to begin on Friday. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Here’s what the 12th Amendment to the Constitution says about the signing of election results in Congress: “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 mandates a joint session of Congress. This is where the House of Representatives and the Senate meet, simultaneously, usually in the Chamber of the House of Representatives. The Speaker of the House presides alongside the Speaker of the Senate: in this case, Vice President Harris.
But Harris kind of leads the way.
The House of Representatives and the Senate meet only in joint session of Congress to receive the President on the State of the Union and confirm the outcome of the election. And since the House successfully elected president on Friday afternoon, the House of Representatives and the Senate can convene a joint session. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will co-chair the session at the top of the podium in the House chamber.
Things are different compared to this exercise four years ago.
The relatively routine, almost ceremonial, confirmation of the Electoral College changed forever on January 6, 2021, after riots at the Capitol.
Capitol Police began restricting vehicular traffic on streets around the Capitol complex early Monday morning. Access to the office buildings of the House of Representatives and the Senate is limited to members, staff and visitors who are on official duty there. There will be only a few pedestrian access points to the Capitol. Official tours of the Capitol have been suspended.
Speaker Mike Johnson holds a press conference and speaks with a gavel (Getty Images)
Johnson will call the House to order 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 chamber. Members of the House Administration Committee and the Senate Rules Committee will serve as “counters” to help tabulate the electoral votes.
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Harris will announce that the House and Senate meet in joint session and announce “that the certificates (of election) are authentic and correct in form.”
Starting in Alabama, one of the counters will likely read:
“The Certificate of Electoral Vote of the State of Alabama appears to be in proper 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 let’s go.
In late 2022, lawmakers made several changes to the “Counting of Elections Act” of 1887. Congress initially passed the Counting of Elections Act in response to a disputed election in 1876. Multiple states sent competing lists of electors to Washington. Legislators determined that there is no formality for tabulating the results of the Electoral College.
Democrat Samuel Tilden prevailed in the election. But President Rutherford B. Hayes prevailed The white house – after a special commission made up of the Congress gave him the disputed 20 electoral votes.
American presidential race, Samuel Tilden, Democratic candidate and Rutherford Hayes, Republican candidate, 1876. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The recount reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022 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 confirm him in the process. Many demanded that he accept alternative lists of electors from the respective states. The updated law states that the role of the vice president is simply “ministerial”. The new statute says the vice president has no authority to “determine, accept, reject or otherwise adjudicate or settle disputes concerning the correctness of the 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 electoral vote litigation. Finally, the law changed the way in which the representatives themselves can challenge the electoral roll of the state during the joint session.
The old system required one member of the House of Representatives and one senator to sign a petition contesting a state’s electoral list. In 2021, Republicans planned to challenge as many as six swing states. In the end, they questioned two of them.
In 2001, several members of the Congressional Black Caucus attempted to challenge Florida’s electoral roll. But they did not have a co-sponsor of the Senate.
FILE: House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol after the final vote of the week on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
After Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., called to question Florida’s electoral votes, Al Gore — again, presiding over his own loss — asked if the California Democrat had a cohort in the Senate.
Waters replied that she didn’t and that she “didn’t care.”
Gore then responded with a statesmanlike proclamation that healed the political wounds of the bitter election he had just lost to President W. Bush.
“The president will advise those rules make care,” Gore said.
His takedown of Waters prompted an outpouring of bipartisan applause in the chamber.
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The question of Ohio’s electoral vote roll came up 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., joined forces to force the House and Senate to separately debate and vote on Ohio’s ballot. But both the House and the Senate rejected their petition.
The 2022 law made it more difficult to challenge the state’s election certifications. It now takes one-fifth of all members of the House of Representatives and one-half of all members of the Senate to contest what the states send.
U.S. members of the 119th Congress are sworn in during the first day of the session in the Chamber of Representatives of the U.S. Capitol on January 3, 2025 in Washington, DC. Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) has retained his position as Speaker despite opposition within his own party as the 119th Congress holds its first session to vote on a new Speaker of the House. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The outcome of the 2024 election is not disputed. There is no expectation that anyone will force Congress to make additional revisions to the Electoral College. And despite the extra precautions, Capitol security officials aren’t anticipating rallies, much less violence, unlike in 2021.
In 2021 — after riots and two near-brawls in the House of Representatives — Pence confirmed the outcome of the electoral vote just before 4 a.m. EST on Jan. 7. This year’s exercise should be over in about an hour. Vice President Harris will announce that Donald Trump has won the election “for a 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 is sworn in Donald John Trump on the west front of the Capitol for his second term.
