[Congressional Democrats are expected to offer President-elect Donald Trump the unremarkable, perhaps even dull transfer of power he and a band of pro-Trump rioters denied President Joe Biden exactly four years ago.
It is January 6 again, and that means federal lawmakers will count the Electoral College votes, in accordance with the 12th Amendment, and formally announce Trump as the next president. He will be sworn-in at his inauguration on January 20.
Four years ago, Trump whipped up a crowd near the White House, declaring, “We will never concede” the election, before warning the aggrieved throng, “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” Shortly afterward, a mob pushed through barricades and eventually forced its way into the US Capitol, assaulting law enforcement officials, threatening lawmakers and trashing the building – all as Trump sat by, watching media coverage, tweeting against Vice President Mike Pence for refusing to block the certification and, eventually, issuing a few social media posts asking the rioters to “stay peaceful.”
There is no such drama on tap this time around. Democrats are not planning any protests – not among House members and senators during the count, nor on the grounds adjacent to the Congress or White House. Vice President Kamala Harris, who like Trump in 2020 lost this year’s election, is expected to be present, but only to preside – in her role as president of the Senate – over a joint session where lawmakers will confirm Trump’s victory.
The process they will follow is largely the same as the one that guided past quadrennial gatherings, though a new law called the Electoral Count Reform Act, passed in the aftermath of the 2021 insurrection, will make it more difficult for dissident lawmakers to raise objections to any state’s electoral votes.
This year, the confirmation of Trump’s win will play out as follows: the House of Representatives and Senate will meet, per federal law, at 1 p.m. ET for the counting of the electoral votes. Going in alphabetical order, Harris will open each state’s certificate of electoral votes and hand them to one of the four “tellers” – a pair of them coming from both the House and Senate. The teller will then read, record, and tally the certificates of electoral votes from each state and the District of Columbia.
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