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A pro-Trump mob enters the Roturnda of the U.S. Capitol Building on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. Congress held a joint session today to ratify President-elect Joe Biden s 306-232 Electoral College win over President Donald Trump. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC After it was disrupted by protesters storming the Capitol building on Wednesday, Congress voted to certify the 2020 Electoral College votes confirming Democrat Joe Biden as the nation s 46th president, despite a symbolic fight by allies of President Donald Trump to subvert the vote so he can remain in the White House.
Wednesday s vote by a joint session of Congress was the last hurdle before the Jan. 20 inauguration of Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer from New Jersey s 5th District voted to certify the Electoral College votes.
Ignore the histrionics; Democrat lawmakers have objected to last three GOP presidents Follow Us
Question of the Day
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
To hear the mainstream media and bleeding-heart liberals tell it, Republicans who plan to object to Electoral College votes in the 2020 presidential election are all but committing treason.
Congress is set to certify the election results Wednesday, and a slew of Republicans a dozen in the Senate, more than 100 in the House plan to make their objections known.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas released Saturday a joint statement with 10 other GOP lawmakers announcing that they “intend to vote on January 6 to reject the electors from disputed states as not ‘regularly given’ and ‘lawfully certified’ (the statutory requisite), unless and until [an] emergency 10-day audit is completed.”
Contact: jwadley@umich.edu
FACULTY Q&A University of Michigan’s
Christian Fong , assistant professor of political science who studies the U.S. Congress, says challenges to the Electoral College votes will not change the November election results, nor keep President-elect Joe Biden from seeking bipartisan coalitions during his administration.
Explain the process of counting the electoral votes. The House of Representatives and Senate will meet for a joint session. Vice President Mike Pence will read states’ votes in alphabetical order. For any vote, if at least one representative and one senator object to the certification of that vote, the two chambers separate for a two-hour debate on whether to certify the results. If the majority in each chamber votes to sustain the objection, then the contested votes are not counted. If the majority of at least one chamber votes to reject the objection, then the votes are counted.
Lawmakers from the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are scheduled to meet Wednesday in a joint session of Congress to count and certify electoral votes based on the result of the November presidential election.
This usually routine and ceremonial function a final step after the Electoral College officially elected Joe Biden on December 14 has turned into a litmus test of Republican lawmakers' loyalty to President Donald Trump. More than 100 Trump loyalists are set to challenge certification.WATCH: Joint Session of Congress
Here's what we can expect from the meeting.