{"id":12178,"date":"2021-01-05T11:59:55","date_gmt":"2021-01-05T16:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/articles\/congress-and-the-presidential-election-faq-regarding-january-6-joint-session\/"},"modified":"2021-01-05T11:59:55","modified_gmt":"2021-01-05T16:59:55","slug":"congress-and-the-presidential-election-faq-regarding-january-6-joint-session","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/vi\/articles\/congress-and-the-presidential-election-faq-regarding-january-6-joint-session\/","title":{"rendered":"QU\u1ed0C H\u1ed8I V\u00c0 CU\u1ed8C B\u1ea6U C\u1eec T\u1ed4NG TH\u1ed0NG: C\u00c2U H\u1eceI TH\u01af\u1edcNG G\u1eb6P V\u1ec0 K\u1ef2 H\u1ee2P NG\u00c0Y 6 TH\u00c1NG 1"},"template":"","class_list":["post-12178","article","type-article","status-publish","hentry","article_type-blog-post"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"Your questions answered about Congress's January 6th meeting to officially declare President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris winners of the 2020 presidential election","featured_image":null,"article_type":1103,"authors":["{\"site_id\":\"1\",\"post_type\":\"person\",\"post_id\":10483}"],"related_issues":false,"related_work":false,"location":null},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":null,"name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"content":"On November 3, 2020, voters elected Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our nation\u2019s next president and vice president by an electoral vote margin of 306 to 232 and a popular vote margin of more than 7.1 million votes.\r\n\r\nOn December 14, presidential electors met in their respective states, cast their ballots, then signed and certified their votes and sent them under seal to Washington, DC, directed to the President of the Senate (<em>i.e.<\/em>, Vice President Pence), as required by the U.S. Constitution\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/constitution\/amendmentxii\">12<sup>th<\/sup> S\u1eeda \u0111\u1ed5i<\/a>.\r\n\r\nThe next step in our presidential election process is for Congress to meet on January 6 to count the electoral votes and officially announce the Biden and Harris as the winners.\r\n\r\n<strong><em>What\u2019s the process by which Congress counts the electoral votes?<\/em><\/strong>\r\n\r\nC\u00e1c <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/constitution\/amendmentxii\">12<sup>th<\/sup> S\u1eeda \u0111\u1ed5i<\/a>, together with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/3\/chapter-1\">Electoral Count Act of 1887 (ECA)<\/a>, provide that on January 6, beginning at 1pm, both chambers of Congress meet in joint session in the House to count electoral votes. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2020\/12\/29\/sorry-president-trump-january-6-is-not-an-election-do-over\/\">Congress\u2019 job<\/a> on January 6 is to make sure that the electoral votes received by Congress are the ones cast by electors appointed by the states\u2014authenticating the returns to ensure they are not counterfeit papers\u2014and then counting the votes.\r\n\r\nNeither the Constitution nor the ECA grant Congress power to scrutinize the validity of ballots cast by voters on Election Day. Election disputes are to be resolved by courts. President Trump and his allies have lost at least 60 lawsuits challenging the November 3 election results, failing to produce evidence to support their allegations.\r\n\r\nThe President of the Senate (<em>i.e.<\/em>, Vice President Pence) serves as \u201cpresiding officer\u201d\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2020\/12\/29\/pences-very-limited-options-challenge-bidens-win\/\">a strictly ceremonial role<\/a>\u2014and opens \u201call the certificates and papers purporting to be certificates of the electoral votes\u00a0\u2026\u00a0in the alphabetical order of the States.\u201d For each state, the Vice President will call for objections, which must be made in writing, clearly stating the ground, and signed by at least one Senator and one Member of the House (see below).\r\n\r\nAfter the votes of each state have been read and counted, the presiding officer announces whether any candidates have received the required majority votes (270) and, if so, the candidates are declared elected president and vice president.\r\n\r\n<strong><em>What happens if Members of Congress object to a state\u2019s electoral return?<\/em><\/strong>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/senators-challenge-election\/2021\/01\/02\/81a4e5c4-4c7d-11eb-a9d9-1e3ec4a928b9_story.html\">Dozens of Republican House Members are expected to join with a dozen Senators in objecting<\/a> to the counting of electoral returns from six states in which President Trump has unsuccessfully challenged election results: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.\r\n\r\nWhen an objection is made to a specific state\u2019s electoral return, the Senate withdraws to its chamber and the House and Senate separately deliberate the objection, with debate on the objection capped at two hours. Following debate, the House and Senate vote in their respective chambers on the objection, they immediately reconvene in joint session and the presiding officer announces the decision on the objections. Congress may not move on to the consideration of the next state\u2019s votes until the previous objections have been finally disposed of.\r\n\r\nA state\u2019s electors cannot be rejected unless both the House and Senate agree to do so by a simple majority vote. Given Democratic control of the House, objections from Republicans on January 6 will not change the outcome of the election.\r\n\r\nFurther, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/3\/5\">federal law provides<\/a> that if a state had by December 8 resolved any \u201ccontroversy or contest\u201d regarding its November 3 election results, such determination of the state\u2019s election result \u201cshall be conclusive, and shall govern in the counting of the electoral votes as provided in the Constitution.\u201d This is known as the ECA\u2019s \u201csafe harbor\u201d provision. Every state <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jsonline.com\/story\/news\/politics\/elections\/2020\/12\/08\/wisconsin-only-state-miss-election-safe-harbor-deadline\/6496378002\/\">except Wisconsin<\/a> reportedly met the December 8 \u201csafe harbor\u201d deadline. (Wisconsin had a legal challenge pending on December 8, but the litigation was resolved in time for electors to cast their ballots on December 14.)\r\n\r\nThe federal law \u201csafe harbor\u201d provision requires Congress to count electoral votes sufficient to confirm the Biden\/Harris victory, even in the presence of objections by House and Senate Members. The electoral votes from states that met the \u201csafe harbor\u201d are presumed valid and must be accepted by the House and Senate.\r\n\r\n<strong><em>What happens if Congress is still debating Republican objections to electoral votes on Inauguration Day?<\/em><\/strong>\r\n\r\nThis is exceedingly unlikely to happen. However, if it occurs, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/constitution\/amendmentxx\">20<sup>th<\/sup> S\u1eeda \u0111\u1ed5i<\/a> provides that the \u201cterms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20<sup>th<\/sup> day of January.\u201d If at noon on January 20<sup>th<\/sup> Congress is still debating electoral votes, then the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/3\/19\">Presidential Succession Act<\/a> governs, with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi first in line to serve as acting President until the presidential election dispute is resolved."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"content":"<a class=\"button1\" role=\"button\"  href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Congress-and-the-Presidential-Election-FAQ-1.5.2021.pdf\">Download This FAQ<\/a>"}}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: FAQ Regarding January 6 Joint Session - 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