Sec. 10. Counting electoral votes in Congress
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/bill/117/hr/8873/rds/section-10·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Section 15 of title 3, United States Code, is amended to read as follows: Congress shall be in session on the sixth day of January succeeding every meeting of the electors. The Senate and House of Representatives shall meet in the Hall of the House of Representatives at the hour of 1 o'clock in the afternoon on that day, and the President of the Senate (or, in the absence of the President, the President pro tempore) shall be their presiding officer. Such joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives shall not be dissolved until the count of electoral votes shall be completed and the result of such count declared.
The presiding officer shall have power to preserve order, and no debate shall be allowed and no question shall be put by the presiding officer except as provided by this section. The role of the presiding officer is ministerial. Except with respect to the procedures described in this section, the presiding officer shall not have any power to determine or otherwise resolve disputes concerning the proper list of electors for a State, the validity of electors for a State, or the votes of electors of a State.
Except as provided for in this section, the presiding officer shall not order any delay in counting or preside over any period of delay in counting electoral votes. The presiding officer shall, in the alphabetical order of the States, beginning with the letter A, open the sealed certificate in which is contained the signed certificates of votes and the annexed list of electors appointed for each State, and shall read aloud the names of the list of electors appointed for each State according to the certificate received.
The presiding officer shall present the certificate of electoral votes cast by the State’s appointed electors to the tellers for the purpose of reading such certificates pursuant to subparagraph (B). Two tellers shall be previously appointed on the part of the Senate and two on the part of the House of Representatives. Upon the reading by the tellers of any such certificate of electoral votes, the presiding officer shall call for objections to such certificate pursuant to the rules described in subsection (c), if any.
After having read the certificates of each State in the presence and hearing of the two Houses, the tellers shall make a list of the votes as they shall appear from the certificates, and the votes having been ascertained and counted according to the requirements of this section, the result shall be delivered to the presiding officer, who shall thereupon announce the state of the vote. Such announcement shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons, if any, elected President and Vice President of the United States, and shall, together with a list of the votes, be entered on the Journals of the two Houses.
No motion shall be received in the joint session except— a motion pursuant to subsection
(b)of this section in relation to the appointment of electors from a State; or a motion to recess. An objection, appeal, or motion shall not be received by the presiding officer unless such action— is submitted in writing and states clearly and concisely, and without argument, the ground for such action; is signed by at least one third of each House of Congress; and in the case of a motion to recess, states a time certain, in accordance with paragraph (6), at which the joint session will resume proceedings. A Senator or Representative may sign only one motion to recess received by the presiding officer during joint session proceedings with respect to a single State. If an appeal is submitted in accordance with subparagraph (A)(i), the Clerk of the House of Representatives shall maintain the written appeal at the desk and the presiding officer shall provide Senators and Representatives with a sufficient opportunity to sign it before proceeding which shall not exceed 15 minutes. An appeal submitted in accordance with subparagraph (A)(i) may not be withdrawn following submission, and only one such appeal may be submitted with respect to a ruling of the presiding officer. The presiding officer shall put the question on any appeal as follows: Shall the decision of the presiding officer be overturned? . A majority vote of both Houses shall be required for the adoption of any question received during the joint session, except that a majority vote of either House shall be required for the adoption of a motion to recess. A motion to recess must state the time certain for the resumption of proceedings in the joint session, the Senate, or the House, and may not state a time beyond the next calendar day at the hour of 10 o’clock in the forenoon. If the proceedings of the joint session have not been completed in three calendar days, no further recess may be taken. Except as provided in clause (ii), any question received by the presiding officer pursuant to paragraph
(5)shall be reported in the joint session, and such question shall be submitted to each House, which shall each withdraw for a period of debate described in subparagraph (B). A motion to recess shall not be subject to debate. The time for debate of any question shall be limited to— in the case of any motion that is made under subsection (b), two hours equally divided and controlled by the majority leader and minority leader of each House or their respective designees; in the case of any objection that is made under subsection (c), two hours equally divided and controlled by the majority leader and minority leader of each House or their respective designees; and in the case of any appeal of a decision of the presiding officer, 30 minutes equally divided and controlled by the majority leader and minority leader of each House or their respective designees. If more than one motion in relation to the appointment of electors from a State is made under subsection
(b)that satisfies the requirements of paragraph (5), such motions shall be debatable for a single period of two hours as provided in subparagraph (B)(i). If more than one objection with respect to any vote from a State is made under subsection
(c)that satisfies the requirements of paragraph (5), such objections shall be debatable for a single period of two hours as provided in subparagraph (B)(ii). If the proceedings of the joint session have not been completed in five calendar days, the presiding officer may reduce the length of debate for any question to not less than 30 minutes equally divided and controlled by the majority leader and minority leader of each House or their respective designees. The presiding officer shall announce the electors whose appointments are reflected in a certificate that is received under section 6 of this title. Pursuant to section 6 of this title, such electors shall be the conclusive appointed electors for the State, and in no case shall the presiding officer or the joint session consider any other person to be an appointed elector for a State. After the declaration of the presiding officer under paragraph
(1)with respect to a State, the following motions may be submitted: A motion to reject the declaration of the appointment of electors for the State by the presiding officer under paragraph
(1)on the grounds that the certificate of appointment presented by the presiding officer is not conclusive under section 6 of this title and to receive a certificate of appointment from the State that is conclusive under section 6 of this title. In the absence of any presentation of a certificate from a State by the presiding officer, a motion to receive a certificate of appointment from the State that is conclusive under section 6 of this title. When all motions offered pursuant to paragraph
(2)with respect to a State have been received and read in the joint session, the Senate shall thereupon withdraw, and such motions shall be submitted to the Senate for its decision, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall submit such motions to the House of Representatives for its decision. When the two Houses have voted, they shall immediately resume proceedings in the joint session, and the presiding officer shall announce the decision on any such motions. If a motion under paragraph
(2)is adopted, the presiding officer shall declare the list of electors that was received under such motion to be the appointed electors for the State. Once the joint session has identified the duly appointed electors of a State pursuant to the procedures described in subsection
(a)and the rules described in subsection (b), the presiding officer shall call for objections, if any, to one or more electoral votes cast by the electors of the State on the grounds specified in paragraph (2). No votes from a State shall be acted upon until any objections made to the votes from a State under this subsection have been decided. To raise an objection under this subsection, a Member must submit such objection pursuant to the requirements of subsection (a)(5) and specify in writing the number of electoral votes objected to and one of the following grounds for the objection: The State in question was not validly a State at the time its electors cast their electoral votes and is thus not entitled to such votes, except that such objection may not be raised with respect to the District of Columbia. The State in question submitted more votes than it is constitutionally entitled to, and thus a corresponding number of its purported votes should be rejected. One or more of the State’s electors are constitutionally ineligible for the office of elector under article II, section I, clause 2 or section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, except if a State has replaced the ineligible elector with an eligible elector pursuant to the authority described in section 4 of this title prior to the casting of electoral votes by its electors, then it shall not be in order to cite the initial appointment of the ineligible elector as grounds for raising an objection under this subparagraph. One or more of the State’s electoral votes were cast for a candidate who is ineligible for the office of President or Vice President pursuant to— article I, section 3, clause 7 of the Constitution of the United States; article II, section 1, clause 5 of the Constitution of the United States; section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; or section 1 of the Twenty-second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. One or more of the State’s electoral votes were cast in violation of the requirements enumerated by article II, section 1, clause 4 of the Constitution of the United States by failing to vote on the date specified in section 7 of this title, or one or more of the State’s electoral votes were cast in violation of the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States by failing to be cast— by ballot; or distinctly for the offices of President and Vice President, one of whom is not an inhabitant of the elector’s State. When all objections offered pursuant to paragraph
(1)with respect to a State have been received and read in the joint session, the Senate shall thereupon withdraw, and such objections shall be submitted to the Senate for its decision, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall submit such objections to the House of Representatives for its decision. When the two Houses have voted, they shall immediately resume proceedings in the joint session, and the presiding officer shall announce the decision on any such objections. If a State’s electoral votes are rejected under subsection (c)(2)— in the case a State’s electoral votes are rejected pursuant to an objection under subparagraph (A), (B), or
(C)of such subsection, the whole number of electors appointed for purposes of the Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States shall be reduced by the number of rejected electoral appointments; and in the case a State’s electoral votes are rejected pursuant to an objection under subparagraph
(D)or
(E)of such subsection, the whole number of electors appointed for purposes of the Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States shall be unaffected. For the purposes of section 3 of the Twentieth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, in the case an objection is sustained under subsection (c)(2)(D)— the electoral votes cast for such candidate shall be counted for the purposes of determining whether the candidate has been elected under such amendment; such candidate shall be deemed to have failed to qualify under such amendment; and subparagraphs
(A)and
(B)shall apply with respect to any electoral votes cast for such candidate from any other State that are otherwise valid under this section, except that nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to prohibit a Member from objecting to any such electoral votes on other grounds described in subsection (c)(2). . Title 3, United States Code, is amended by striking sections 16 through 18. The table of sections of such title is amended by striking the items relating to sections 16 through 18.