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WASHINGTON (AP) – Wednesday’s joint congressional session to count electoral votes has taken on added significance this year as Congressional Republicans allied with President Donald Trump pledge to try to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s victory and to reverse the will of the American people.
Republicans – a dozen senators and many other members of the House – cite Trump’s repeated and baseless accusations of widespread fraud. They say they will officially oppose the results, forcing votes in the Republican Senate and Democratic-controlled House that will almost certainly fail.
There was no widespread fraud in the election, as confirmed by several election officials and William Barr, who resigned as attorney general last month. Neither Trump nor any of the lawmakers who pledged to oppose the tally have presented credible evidence that could change the outcome.
Almost all of the legal challenges raised by Trump and his allies were dismissed by the judges. The Supreme Court, which includes three judges appointed by Trump, has also rejected requests to hear two cases aimed at overturning the election result in the main battlefield states.
January 6 congressional meeting is final step in reaffirming Biden’s victory, after the constituency officially elects him in December. The meeting is required by the Constitution and consists of several distinct stages.
A look at the joint session:
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE CONGRESS MEETS WEDNESDAY?
Under federal law, Congress is scheduled to meet on Jan.6 to open each state’s sealed certificates containing a record of their electoral votes. The votes are introduced into the room in special mahogany boxes used for the occasion.
Biparty representatives from both houses read the results aloud and do an official tally. The President of the Senate, Vice President Mike Pence, presides over the session and declares the winner. The session begins at 1 p.m. EST.
WHAT DOES THE CONSTITUTION REQUIRE?
The Constitution obliges Congress to meet and count electoral votes. In the event of a tie, the Chamber decides on the presidency, each delegation of Congress having one vote. This hasn’t happened since the 1800s and Biden’s election victory over Trump was decisive, 306-232.
HOW DOES THE SESSION TAKE PLACE?
The two chambers meet at noon to count the votes. If the vice president cannot preside, there is a precedent for the pro-tempore Senate, or the senior senator of the majority party, to lead the session. He is currently Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
The president opens and presents the certificates of electoral votes in alphabetical order of states. Appointed “tellers” of the House and Senate, members of both parties, then read each certificate aloud and record and count the votes. At the end, the president announces who has won the majority of votes for the president and vice president.
WHAT IF THERE IS AN OBJECTION?
Once a cashier has read a state’s certificate, any member can stand up and object to that state’s vote for any reason. But the president will hear the objection only if it is written and signed by both a member of the House and a member of the Senate.
If there is such a request, the joint session is suspended and the House and Senate hold separate sessions to consider it. For the objection to be upheld, both chambers must accept it by a simple majority vote. If they do not both agree, the original electoral votes are counted unchanged.
The last time such an objection was considered was in 2005, when Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio and Senator Barbara Boxer of California, both Democrats, opposed the Ohio electoral votes. , claiming that there were voting irregularities. The House and Senate debated the objection and easily dismissed it. It was only the second time that such a vote had taken place.
WHO SHOULD OBJECT?
Dozens of House Republicans and a small group of GOP senators are expected to oppose the count of some swing states where Trump has alleged fraud, despite the consensus of non-partisan election officials and even Trump’s former attorney general that there was none. None of the members presented detailed evidence, and none of them opposed the swearing-in of congressional lawmakers who won the election on the same ballots.
In the Senate, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley was the first to say he would join House Republicans. On Saturday, Texas Senator Ted Cruz announced a coalition of 11 additional senators who pledged to vote against unspecified state voters on Wednesday, unless Congress appoints an election commission to immediately audit the results of the election. elections. Hawley and Cruz are both among potential candidates for the 2024 presidential election.
The challenges divided the party. Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell urged his colleagues not to oppose, saying last month on a private call that the vote would be “terrible.”
Several other Senate Republicans have also criticized the effort, including Texas Senator John Cornyn and South Dakota Senator John Thune, the second Republican in the Senate. Thune said last month that any objection would fall “like a hound” in the Senate.
On Sunday, Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse said the challenge was “bad for the country and bad for the party.”
WHAT IS PENCE’S ROLE?
Pence’s role is largely ceremonial, and he has no power to influence the outcome, despite Trump’s will to the contrary.
The vice president’s role as sitting chair is often delicate, as will be the case for Pence, who will be tasked with announcing Biden’s victory – and his own defeat – once the electoral votes are counted.
Pence will not be the first vice president put in an awkward position. In 2001, Vice President Al Gore presided over the 2000 presidential election tally, which he narrowly lost to Republican George W. Bush. Gore had to dismiss the objections of several Democrats. In 2017, Biden chaired the tally that declared Trump the winner. Biden also dismissed objections from House Democrats who had no Senate support.
ONCE THE CONVENTION COUNTS THE VOTES, WHAT HAPPENS?
The joint session is the last official chance for objections, beyond court cases which have so far proved ineffective for Trump and his team.
“I think there comes a time when you have to realize that no matter how hard you try, you haven’t been successful,” Cornyn said earlier this month.
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Lisa Mascaro, PA Congress correspondent, contributed to this report.
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