H�ԕyTWƿ[�^5�H7�� U�ШhH��1Wp%�h�,-w�h����b�؞��9F��h�x�IFc\�&c�����!��̙��������U߫�? <>/Metadata 2 0 R/Outlines 5 0 R/Pages 3 0 R/StructTreeRoot 6 0 R/Type/Catalog/ViewerPreferences<>>> endobj endobj endobj endobj <>]/P 336 0 R/Pg 332 0 R/S/Link>> |;^, The Electoral Count Mess: The Electoral Count Act of 1887 Is Unconstitutional, and Other Fun Facts (Plus a Few Random Academic Speculations) about Counting Electoral Votes. <> <>]/P 460 0 R/Pg 459 0 R/S/Link>> <> endobj <> But Congress decided to take actions that might keep future elections from being hijacked. The Founders didn’t prepare for a president who refuses to step down, historians say, Hijacking the electoral college: The plot to deny JFK the presidency 60 years ago. 215 0 obj endobj 221 0 obj <> <> 373, establishes the process in Congress by which the Electoral College votes are counted to elect a president every four years in the United States.. <> The official name of the measure was: “An act to fix the day for the meeting of the electors of President and Vice-President, and to provide for and regulate the counting of the votes for President and Vice-President, and the decision of questions arising thereon.”. Senate President Pro Tempore James Mason, a Virginia Democrat and a grandson of Founding Father George Mason, served as the presiding officer because the vice president, William King, had died six weeks after being sworn in and had never been replaced. 90. “I assure you, sir,” Butler said. 487 0 obj 236 0 obj endobj 283 0 obj endobj 373, ch. endobj The answers to these questions, to a large extent, are contained in the Electoral Count Act of 1887, codified at 3 U.S.C. 284 0 obj endobj 282 0 obj But some lawmakers warned that permitting the presiding officer to accept a state’s illegal vote could set a “dangerous precedent,” according to Congress’s record of the debate in the Congressional Globe. 490 0 obj By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, A blizzard, a disputed electoral vote count and the 1887 law tying Pence’s hands, Pence will announce the defeat of the Trump-Pence ticket. endobj <>]/P 378 0 R/Pg 377 0 R/S/Link>> <>]/P 397 0 R/Pg 394 0 R/S/Link>> At the presidential count ceremony in 1857 a dispute erupted over Wisconsin’s five electoral votes, which had been delivered a day after the deadline because of a blizzard. The act also defines a process about objections to electoral votes in the joint meeting of Congress to tally electoral votes and confirm a presidential election. endobj Two tellers shall be previously appointed on the part of the Senate and two on the part of the House of Representatives, to whom shall be handed, as they are opened by the President of the Senate, all the certificates and papers purporting to be certificates of the electoral votes, which certificates and papers shall be opened, presented, and acted upon in the alphabetical order of the States, beginning with the … The Electoral Count Mess: The Electoral Count Act of 1887 Is Unconstitutional, and Other Fun Facts (Plus a Few Random Academic Speculations) about Counting Electoral Votes Three Southern states filed opposing elector slates. 16 0 obj 244 0 obj 191 0 obj The effort is all but certain to meet the same fate as the one in 2005: failure. H�\�Kk� ໿b����([ <> endobj I protest against any such power.”, Sen. Andrew Butler (D-S.C.) chimed in that such use of “arbitrary power could make a president of the United States without an election.”. This section appears in Title 3, Section 5 of the U.S. Code (3 U.S.C. endobj The Act also moved back by about one month the date of the meeting of the electors in order to give states more time to resolve any such disputes.5 Section two of the Electoral Count Act created a “safe harbor” for states that resolved disputes concerning their electoral votes in a timely manner. <>stream endobj The last time was 2005 when several Democrats unsuccessfully challenged Ohio’s electoral votes for George W. Bush. <> endobj Only one president has returned to power after losing reelection. 497 0 obj Regardless of growing Republican efforts to disrupt the ceremony, the electoral votes will be counted out loud to certify the election of Joe Biden as President and Kamala D. Harris as vice president. Usually this ceremony is simply ceremonial. The ECA is the source of the procedures described in the routine electoral vote count. endobj 5 0 obj 304 0 obj <> “Suppose the result of the election would depend on the vote of that state,” said Rep. James Orr (D-S.C.). 316 0 obj At the same time, it is not at all clear that it is constitutional, or that it is binding, and in the face of a claim of serious mistakes and fraud, it contains silence and ambiguity. 138 0 obj endobj 166 0 obj Objections must be stated in writing in advance and signed by at least one member of both the House and Senate. <>]/P 385 0 R/Pg 384 0 R/S/Link>> 498 0 obj endobj endobj uuid:a968a5f3-b0bb-11b2-0a00-509665010000 227 0 obj Mason proceeded with the traditional drawing of the votes. <>]/P 340 0 R/Pg 339 0 R/S/Link>> <>]/P 428 0 R/Pg 427 0 R/S/Link>> One observer called it “unintelligible.” But the 809-word act became the framework for the presidential electoral count that Congress uses now. FORTY-NINTH CONGRESS. 201 0 obj 226 0 obj endobj 24 Stat. 183 0 obj <> Jack Beermann and Gary Lawson * Abstract: In this essay, and in light of the controversy that arose in the wake of the 2020 <>]/P 333 0 R/Pg 332 0 R/S/Link>> AppendPDF Pro 6.3 Linux 64 bit Aug 30 2019 Library 15.0.4 Mason protested that he was just doing his job. endobj <>]/P 431 0 R/Pg 427 0 R/S/Link>> “I do not consider that the Presiding Officer has a right to close the mouths of Senators and Representatives here, in whose hands the decision of this question must rest,” Toombs said. If there are any valid objections, the House and Senate withdraw to confer separately. ‘Grace and humor’: The vice presidents who certified their own election losses. The Electoral Count Act of 1887 was designed to answer that question. <>]/P 374 0 R/Pg 370 0 R/S/Link>> The discussions went into the next day. The ugliest presidential election in history: Fraud, voter intimidation and a backroom deal. Beermann, Jack Michael and Lawson, Gary, The Electoral Count Mess: The Electoral Count Act of 1887 Is Unconstitutional, and Other Fun Facts (Plus a Few Random Academic Speculations) about Counting Electoral Votes (March 1, 2021).