January 5th, the two houses of the U.S. Congress will hold a joint meeting to count and authenticate the electoral votes of the 2020 presidential election. This is the final step to officially confirm President-designate Biden’s victory.
Eleven Republican senators previously said they would formally oppose the election results in a joint meeting.
What will happen in the joint meeting?
Under federal law, Congress must meet on January 6 to open each state’s sealed certificate, which contains records of electoral votes. The ballot papers were packed in a special mahogany box.
Representatives of both houses read the election results aloud and formally counted the votes.
The President of the Senate and Vice President Pence presided over the meeting and announced the winner. The meeting begins at 1 p.m. Eastern time.
What are the requirements of the U.S. Constitution?
The Constitution requires that the National Assembly meet and count the electoral votes. If there is a draw, it is up to the House of Representatives to decide who is president, and each state has one vote.
This has never happened since the 1800s, and Biden laid the foundation for a decisive victory by a margin of 306-232.
How does the meeting start?
The Senate and the House of Representatives began to count votes at noon.
If the Vice President is unable to preside, the longest-serving senator in the Senate majority party will preside over the meeting.
The moderator announces the meeting and displays the certificate of electoral votes in alphabetical order of the state.
The staff assigned by the Senate and the House of Representatives then read each certificate aloud and recorded and counted the votes. Finally, the moderator announced who won the majority of votes of the president and vice president.
What should I do if I have any objection?
After reading the state’s certificate, any member can stand up and oppose the state’s vote for any reason.
However, the presiding officer will not hear the objection unless one member of the House and one member of the Senate submits the objection in writing and signature.
If such a request is made, the joint meeting shall be suspended and the House and Senate shall meet separately to consider the objection. Both houses must agree by a simple majority vote to maintain the objection.
If they disagree, the original electoral votes will remain unchanged.
Eleven Republican senators, including Congressional Senator Ted Cruz, who represents Texas, previously issued a joint statement saying that they would vote against the results of the congressional certification electoral college.
Cruz et al. requested a 10-day audit of the electoral votes of the battlefield states, but did not specify which states would specifically oppose the results.
What role will Vice President Pence play?
Pence’s role is largely ceremonial, and he has no right to influence the election results.
However, Pence’s chief of staff has issued a statement saying that Pence “welcomes” the decision of some Republican lawmakers to oppose it when Congress certified the Electoral College vote on January 6.
