2020 United States presidential election Electoral College count

About 2020 United States presidential election Electoral College count in brief

The count was the final pro forma step in the 2020 United States presidential election, in which Congress confirmed Joe Biden’s victory over incumbent President Donald Trump. The counting of votes was interrupted by the storming of the U.S. Capitol. Vice President Mike Pence, members of the House of Representatives and Senate, and other officials were evacuated. A state’s certificate of vote can be rejected only if both Houses of Congress vote to accept the objection via a simple majority, meaning the votes from the State in question are not counted. If there are no objections or all objections are overruled, the presiding officer simply includes a state’s votes in the official tally. The final tally is printed in the Senate and House journals. Since the Twentieth Amendment, the newly elected joint Congress declares the winner of the election; all elections before 1936 were determined by the outgoing House. The Twelfth Amendment mandates Congress assemble in joint session to count the electoral votes and declare the winners of theelection. The session is ordinarily required to take place on January 6 in the calendar year immediately following the meetings of the presidential electors. In 2020, several Republican members of. the House, led by Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama, declared that they would formally object to the counting of electoral votes during the January 6, 2021 joint session. At least 140 House Republicans reportedly planned to vote against the counting, despite the fact that almost all of the swing states, and others, reject the Electoral College’ allegations, and reject the allegations of irregularity that would have affected the election.

On December 28, 2020, Republican U. S. Representative Louis Gohmert of Texas, as well as the slate of Republican presidential electors for Arizona, filed a lawsuit against Vice President Pence, seeking to force him to decide the election outcome. On January 1, 2021, U. S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle dismissed the suit for lack of standing. The next day, the U.S Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit dismissed Gohmmert’s appeal in a unanimous decision by a three-judge panel. If no candidate achieves an absolute majority of 270 or more electoral votes is required to elect the president and vice president, a contingent election is held by the United States House of. Representatives to Elect the president, and by the U States Senate to elect a vice president. The count resumed later in the evening and continued into the following day. President Trump had repeatedly raised with his vice president the notion he could delay or obstruct the electoral College count set to occur in Congress on January 6 and was confused on why Vice-President Pence could not unilaterally reject electoral votes. On Jan. 5, Pence said that he did not have the authority to block counting for President-elect Biden’s win in December 2020.