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  • 2020-12-15 (xsd:date)
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  • Does This Text Outline How to Subvert the Counting of Electoral Votes? (en)
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  • After the electors from all the various states met and cast their votes on Dec. 14, 2020, thereby officially confirming Joe Biden as the next President of the United States, social media users began circulating a block of text purporting how Republicans in Congress could subvert the results of that vote. Attributed to Jenna Ellis, a lawyer who represented U.S. President Donald Trump during his unsuccessful attempts to overturn the general election results, the text held that Republicans could raise -- and uphold -- objections during the joint session of Congress in January, which is convened to count the certified ballots submitted by the states: It is true, in a broad sense, that during the joint session members of Congress can object to the counting of electoral votes from a given state, provided that the objection is endorsed by at least one member the House of Representatives and the Senate: If objections are properly raised, then the two Houses separately debate and vote on whether to accept or reject them: However, the role played by Vice President Mike Pence (as the president of the Senate) in this process is largely ceremonial and formal, and he has no real discretion to determine the outcome. The vice president simply announces the roll call of states for their ballots to be counted, calls for any objections (as outlined above), presides over any debate related to objections, announces whether any objections were sustained, and ultimately declares the winner (if one of the candidates receives a majority of electoral votes). More importantly, the text reproduced above errs in stating that the House votes on objections by state delegation, rather than by individual members -- a process that would provide a distinct advantage to Republicans, who are outnumbered in the House but control a majority of state delegations. That process is not used for this purpose, however. As outlined in the 12th Amendment, the House votes by state delegations to choose the president if no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes. But for the purpose of determining whether to uphold objections to the counting of electoral votes, the House votes as a body with individual members each casting a vote. Only twice since the enactment of the Electoral Count Act of 1887 have these objection procedures been invoked; and in both cases, the objections were rejected and the electoral votes were counted as cast: (en)
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