On Wednesday afternoon, the House and Senate will meet in a joint session to count the electoral votes cast after November’s election, a gathering that is usually procedural and unsurprising. But this year, the affirmation of President-elect Joe Biden’s win will be met with multiple objections from Republican lawmakers, which will likely stretch the process into Thursday.

Follow along for live updates from the Spectrum News team.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's What You Need to Know

 

  • On Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET, the House and Senate will meet in a joint session to count the electoral votes cast after November’s election

  • Follow along here for live updates throughout the day

  • The joint session is usually procedural and unsurprising; This year, the affirmation of President-elect Joe Biden’s win will be met with multiple objections from Republican lawmakers

  • About a dozen Republican Senators say they will object; Over 20 Republican Senators say they will not support the objection

  • It will not change the outcome of the presidential election; Biden will become the 46th President of the United States on Jan. 20

Lawmakers will gather at 1 p.m., as usual, and Vice President Mike Pence will call the joint meeting to order shortly after. Typically, the session involves the presentation of states’ certificates of electoral votes, which are read, recorded and counted by two lawmakers – or “tellers” – from each chamber.

In years without major controversy, the counting of the votes can happen quite quickly, sometimes in less than an hour. The most recent joint session, in 2017, lasted under an hour. 

But this year, the session is likely to last into Thursday’s early hours or even longer, depending on how many states receive objections. The first one could happen in the first ten minutes of the session, when the votes from Arizona are presented. 

On Monday, Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who is projected to have lost her seat in the Senate to Democratic calendar Rev. Raphael Warnock, joined the list of Republican senators, led by Ted Cruz of Texas, who intend to object to some states’ votes.

Sen. Cruz has said he would first object to Arizona’s electoral count. Other lawmakers have promised to contest Georgia and Pennsylvania’s votes, but it’s possible that Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin could get debates as well.

Each objection adds an additional three to four hours to the session, since each requires a two-hour debate and a vote in both the House and Senate. 

Sen. Cruz will be joined by 10 others: Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), Sen.John Kennedy (R-LA), Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN), Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Se. Roger Marshall (R-KS), Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL).

They follow Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, who announced last week that he plans to object. Sen. Hawley has promised to object to Pennsylvania’s votes.

Their efforts are expected to fail, since any objection must be approved by  vote from both the House and Senate, which has not happened in modern history. 

With a Democratic majority in the House and a growing list of Republican senators who say they will dismiss objections, any attempt to reject the results stands no chance of approval.

On Tuesday, Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) joined a growing list of GOP senators who said they would not object to the election results.

"As I read the Constitution, there is no constitutionally viable means for the Congress to overturn an election wherein the states have certified and sent their Electors,” Scott said.

In a statement Monday, Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) also said he would not support an attempt to “thwart the will of the voters.”

“After two months of recounts and legal challenges, not a single state recount changed a result and, of the dozens of lawsuits filed, not one found evidence of fraud or irregularities widespread enough to change the result of the election,” he added.

On Twitter Tuesday, President Trump seemed to pressure Vice President Pence to reject the election results, a power he does not have.

"The Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors," the president falsely claimed. In truth, Pence’s role on Wednesday is largely ceremonial. He will preside over the count, objections, and the debate in the Senate, but he ultimately cannot change the final result.

In Georgia Monday, the vice president referenced the joint session but made no indication he’d step out of line.

“I want to assure you I share the concerns of millions of Americans about voting irregularities,” Pence said. “And I promise you, come this Wednesday, we’ll have our day in Congress. We’ll hear the objections.”

Senator Ted Cruz plans to call for a commission to do “an emergency 10-day audit of the election returns in the disputed states” before Biden’s win is affirmed by Congress.

“We are going to vote to object to the electors — not to set aside the election, I don’t think that would actually be the right thing to do — but rather to press for the appointment of an electoral commission that can hear the claims of voter fraud, hear the evidence and make a determination,” Cruz said on the Mark Levin Show Monday.

It’s unlikely any such commission will be formed or that Cruz and other Republicans’ effort will be successful in any way, a fact they acknowledged themselves.

“We are not naïve,” their Saturday statement read. “We fully expect most if not all Democrats, and perhaps more than a few Republicans, to vote otherwise.”

In a rare public statement this weekend, former Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan called the Republican efforts "anti-democratic and anti-conservative." 

“The fact that this effort will fail does not mean it will not do significant damage to American democracy,” Ryan said. "The Trump campaign had ample opportunity to challenge election results, and those efforts failed from lack of evidence.”