Washington – When Congress convenes for counting on Monday electoral college vote from each state and finalize Victory of newly elected President Donald Trump In the November presidential election, the violent attack on the US Capitol that disrupted the joint session four years ago will loom over the proceedings.
but unlike January 6, 2021While then-Vice President Mike Pence faced pressure to unilaterally reject electoral votes from battleground states, Monday's joint session will be governed by a revised set of procedures designed to prevent efforts to overturn the election results. Will clarify the role of the Vice President.
“The 2020 election exposed how the president exploited ambiguities in the Electoral Count Act to sow chaos and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power,” said Holly Idelson, policy strategist at Protect Democracy, a non-partisan, nonprofit organization. May go.” “The bipartisan Election Count Reform Act of 2022 will help ensure that future changes proceed smoothly and respect the will of the voters.”
What is the Election Count Reform Act of 2022?
Saul Loeb/Pool via AP
In December 2022, Congress approved changes as part of comprehensive government spending packageThe legislation updated the Electoral Count Act, an 1887 law that created the framework for casting and counting Electoral College votes after a presidential election.
was called Electoral Counting Reform ActThe amended measure clarified the process that begins in the wake of Election Day and ends with Congress confirming the winner of the presidential election during a joint session on January 6. The goal of the law was to address ambiguities in the 1887 law that Trump's allies took up in 2020 to challenge the election results.
trump faced federal charges as a result of an alleged plan to sabotage the transfer of power in 2020, but they were Dismissed at the end of November After winning the second term. Several associates of the president-elect who allegedly helped or participated in the planning were charged by local prosecutors Arizona And GeorgiaSome have agreed to plead guilty while others have denied wrongdoing.
What's different this time on January 6?
which certifies the appointment of electors in the state
After states have made their selections for the White House on Election Day, “certificates of certainty” are issued, containing the names of the electors chosen by the winning candidate for President and Vice President.
The Electoral Count Reform Act specifies that certificates of ascertainment are to be issued by the executive of each state, defined as the Governor, unless otherwise specified, no later than six days after the date of the Electoral Count Reform Act. Electoral College meeting dateWhich was 17th December.
It also states that certificates issued by governors with respect to appointed electors “shall be considered conclusive in Congress”. Under the law, the federal courts are also the final adjudicator of questions respecting the appointment of electors arising under the Constitution or federal law, and their determinations “shall be adjudicatory in Congress.”
Following the 2020 election, groups of Trump's electors met in key battleground states on the same day as the Electoral College convened to cast votes for President and Vice President based on the election results. According to federal and congressional investigations, they signed fraudulent certificates falsely claiming they were legitimate voters. Some of them were mailed to the Vice President and other government officials.
Federal prosecutors said that under the plan developed by Trump and his associates, submitting fake slates of electors would create a fake vote on January 6 and give Pence a position to replace legitimate electors with those supporting Trump. .
However, signed certificates of valid electors were added to the certificates of confirmation from state officials before being sent.
Vice President's role limited
The Electoral Count Reform Act clarifies the role of the Vice President—who serves as the President of the Senate—when overseeing the counting of electoral votes. Under the law, the role of the Vice President is limited to “performing only the duties of ministerial office”. It also explicitly deprives the Vice President of the power to “fully determine, accept, reject, or otherwise decide or resolve disputes over the proper certificates of appointment of electors, the validity of electors, or the votes of electors.” “
The provision related to the vice president is a direct response to the 2020 election, when Trump and his allies accused Pence of rejecting legitimate electoral votes from seven battleground states and either sending them to state legislatures for review or sending fake slates of electors who supported him. Was forced to use. Trump.
Pence protested the pressure in a letter to lawmakers on the morning of January 6, 2021, saying the Constitution prevented him from “claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.” ” He said the Vice President's role as presiding officer during joint sessions is “largely ceremonial”, an opinion formally adopted by the 2022 law.
“I do not believe that our nation's Founders intended to give the Vice President unilateral authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted during a joint session of Congress, and no Vice President in American history has Has never claimed such a right,” Pence wrote.
Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Trump defeated in November, will preside over a joint session on Monday and certify the president-elect's victory.
a higher threshold for objections
The law also changed the procedures for objections to the state's electoral votes. Under the Electoral Count Reform Act, an objection must be made in writing and signed by at least one-fifth of the senators and one-fifth of the House members. Previously, objections had to be signed only by a senator and a House member.
There are only two grounds for objections under the law: when the electors of a state were not legally certified under the certificate of certification, or when the vote of at least one elector was not regularly cast.
If an objection is made and it meets these requirements, the House and Senate consider them separately. The objection is sustained by a majority vote of each House.