Counting Electoral Votes: An Overview of Procedures at the Joint Session, Including Objections by Members of Congress
President of the Senate (or the Archivist if the President of the Senate is not available) is directed by law to request the state’s secretary of state to immediately forward the certificates and lists held by the secretary of state, and to send a special messenger to the local federal district judge to transmit the lists that are to be held by that judge (3 U.S.C. §§12–13).
Archivist’s Transmittal of Certificates to Congress
At the first meeting of Congress, set for January 3, 2021, the Archivist of the United States is required to transmit to the two houses every certificate received from the governors of the states (3 U.S.C. §6).
Date for Counting Electoral Votes
The date for counting the electoral votes is fixed by law as January 6 following each presidential election (3 U.S.C. §15), unless the date is changed by law. For example, when January 6, 2013, was to fall on a Sunday, the date for counting the electoral votes was changed to January 4, 2013, when the President signed H.J.Res. 122 on December 28, 2012.
Providing for the Joint Session
Venue for Counting Electoral Votes
The electoral votes are counted at a joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives, meeting in the House chamber. (The U.S. Code refers to the event as a joint meeting; it also has been characterized in the Congressional Record as a joint convention.) The joint session convenes at 1:00 p.m. on that day. The President of the Senate is the presiding officer (3 U.S.C. §15). The President pro tempore of the Senate has presided in the absence of the President of the Senate.[1]
Opening of the Votes
Section 15 provides that the President of the Senate open and present the certificates of the electoral votes of the states and the District of Columbia in alphabetical order. (As discussed above, under 3 U.S.C. §§9–10, the electors in each state, having voted, are to sign, seal, and certify the certificates. Under §11 of the same title, they are to mail one such certificate to the President of the Senate and mail two others to the Archivist of the United States.)
Reading of the Votes by House and Senate Tellers
The certificate, or an equivalent document, from each state and the District of Columbia is to be read then by tellers previously appointed from among the membership of the House and Senate. Before the joint session convenes, each chamber appoints two of its Members to be the tellers. (The appointments are made by the presiding officers of the respective chambers, based on recommendations made to them by the leaders of the two major parties.) The appointed tellers are often members of the House Administration and Senate Rules and Administration Committees, the panels in each chamber having jurisdiction over matters relating to the election of the
- ↑ In January, 1969, Vice President Hubert Humphrey “declined to preside over the joint session to count the electoral votes.” Deschler’s [and Deschler-Brown] Precedents of the United States House of Representatives, 94th Cong., 2nd sess., H.Doc. 94-661 (Washington: GPO, 1977) (hereinafter Deschler’s Precedents), ch. 10, §2.5, p. 10.
