Congress counts electoral votes tomorrow. What to know as lawmakers finalize the 2024 presidential election results.
washington — The House and Senate will meet Monday to confirm President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 election.
Four years ago, a violent mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory. Democrats appear to have no plan to prevent Trump from winning.
That’s what to expect this time.
How does Congress calculate presidential election results?
Senators and House members will convene in a joint session, chaired by Vice President Kamala Harris, to count the electoral votes from the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The vice president will read the electoral votes aloud before Congress counts the state results to confirm Trump’s victory.
The process is usually a ceremonial step before the presidential inauguration on January 20.
Does Congress always count the results on January 6, after the presidential election?
Congress is required by law to count the electoral votes on January 6 after every presidential election. However, the date has been temporarily changed by law January 6th falls on a weekend. In 2013, Congress confirmed that President Barack Obama won the election on January 4 instead of Sunday, January 6.
What is the Electoral Count Reform Act? How is January 6th different this time?
After the 2021 Capitol riot, Congress moved to reform the Electoral Count Act, the 1887 law that governs the counting of electoral votes, to prevent another attempt to overturn the results of the presidential election.
Congress passed the Electoral Count Reform Act in 2022, clarifying that the vice president’s role in presiding over a joint session of Congress is ceremonial. It also raises the threshold for members of the House and Senate to 20 percent, making it more difficult for members of Congress to challenge state electors. Previously, only one House member and one senator could raise objections.
After Trump lost the 2020 election, he and his allies fueled baseless claims of fraud and argued that Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to accept or reject electoral votes. Pence denies he has such authority.
Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., joined Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in opposing Biden’s vote in Arizona as Congress counts the 2021 votes.
The joint session then adjourned and the House and Senate debated the objections separately. That process was abruptly interrupted when a group of violent protesters broke into the building after Trump urged them to march to the Capitol.
Hours later, after rioters were cleared from the building, the House and Senate voted to override the objection that would have given Arizona’s electoral votes to Biden. The House and Senate later reconvened into a joint session to continue counting votes. They were later forced to split and debate another objection to Pennsylvania’s results, raised by Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. The House and Senate also rejected attempts to overturn the state’s votes for Biden.
What if a member of Congress objects to the electoral votes?
This time, it was nothing more than complaining. In the last presidential election, a member of each chamber was required to object to the vote count to force lawmakers to debate and vote on whether to accept or reject a state’s tally. The Election Reform Act passed by Congress in 2022 would raise the threshold for members of the House and Senate to one-fifth.
