The House and Senate are set to convene on Monday to certify President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 election. This comes four years after a violent mob of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol in an attempt to prevent Congress from affirming President Biden’s win. Unlike the events of 2021, there are no plans by Democrats to stand in the way of certifying Trump’s win this time around.
The process of certifying the election results involves Senators and members of the House meeting in a joint session, with Vice President Kamala Harris presiding. The electoral votes from the 50 states and the District of Columbia will be tallied, with the vice president reading aloud the results. Congress will then count each state’s results to officially affirm Trump’s victory. This process is typically a ceremonial step before the president is inaugurated on Jan. 20.
It is required by law for Congress to count the electoral votes on Jan. 6 following each presidential election. However, there have been instances where the date has been temporarily changed by law when Jan. 6 fell on a weekend. In 2013, Congress affirmed President Barack Obama’s win on Jan. 4, rather than on Jan. 6, which was a Sunday.
After the events of the Capitol riot in 2021, Congress took steps to reform the Electoral Count Act, a law dating back to 1887 that governs the counting of electoral votes. The Electoral Count Reform Act was passed in 2022 to clarify the ceremonial role of the vice president in presiding over the joint session of Congress. Additionally, the act made it more difficult for members of Congress to challenge a state’s electors by raising the threshold to 20% of members in each chamber. Previously, only one member of the House and one senator were needed to raise an objection.
Following Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election, he and his allies spread unfounded allegations of fraud and argued that Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to accept or reject electoral votes. Pence denied having such authority. During the counting of votes in 2021, Rep. Paul Gosar and Sen. Ted Cruz objected to Mr. Biden’s votes from Arizona, leading to a suspension of the joint session as both chambers separately debated the objection. The process was disrupted by a violent mob of protesters who stormed the Capitol after Trump urged them to do so.
After the rioters were cleared from the building, both chambers voted to reject the objection to Arizona’s electoral votes for Mr. Biden. They then reconvened in a joint session to continue the count but were forced to split and debate another objection to Pennsylvania’s results, brought by Rep. Scott Perry and Sen. Josh Hawley. Both chambers rejected the attempt to throw out the state’s votes for Mr. Biden.
In this upcoming certification process, if a member of Congress objects to the electoral votes, it will only be a complaint as the threshold for raising an objection has been raised to one-fifth of members in each chamber by the Electoral Reform Act passed in 2022.
Overall, the certification of President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 election is expected to proceed without the challenges and disruptions seen during the previous certification process in 2021. The reforms put in place aim to streamline the process and prevent any attempts to overturn the results of a presidential election. The joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 will be a crucial step in officially affirming Trump’s victory and paving the way for his inauguration on Jan. 20.
