Who formally declares the winner of the US presidential election?

In contrast to many different nations, the place the president or prime minister is chosen by direct standard vote, in the US a candidate might win the favored vote and nonetheless not be elected to the nation’s highest workplace. The U.S. additionally differs from most different democracies in that it has no unbiased electoral fee to certify the ultimate vote depend.

So who really confirms the winner?

Step 1: Earlier than Election Day

American democracy has many elected officers – state, native and nationwide – and lots of processes for entering into workplace.

I’ve been engaged on election campaigns since I used to be 8 years previous, when my dad ran for varsity board and I went door to door asking folks to vote for him. I’ve additionally labored on native, congressional, senate and presidential races and now direct an educational analysis heart on politics.

What’s hanging is that each race is completely different, from deadlines and submitting course of to certification. Right here, I’ll concentrate on the presidential race.

The bizarre and complex presidential election certification course of within the U.S. entwines all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the Senate, Home of Representatives, the Nationwide Archives and the Workplace of the Federal Register. It additionally includes the Electoral School – a uniquely American establishment that convenes in 51 separate areas as soon as each 4 years to select the president.

This monthslong course of was customized as a compromise by the Founding Fathers, who didn’t imagine the American folks ought to immediately select the president and vp however didn’t need to give Congress the facility of choice, both.

The Structure declares that American presidential elections happen on the primary Tuesday in November, each 4 years. However the federal election course of really begins in October, when the Archivist of the US – a presidential appointee liable for sustaining the federal government’s most essential official paperwork – sends a letter to the governor of every state.

The doc outlines their tasks concerning the Electoral School, which is not a spot however a course of by which electors – individuals who are chosen by their occasion – vote for his or her occasion’s presidential candidate.

The equipment of the Electoral School is sophisticated, however briefly, Individuals vote for electors and the electors vote for the president. Then, the winner is said – proper?

Learn extra:
How is the American President elected?

Step 2: After Election Day

Not fairly.

As soon as a last tally of voters’ in-person, mail-in and provisional ballots has been concluded, all 50 governors put together their state’s Certificates of Ascertainment, a doc itemizing their electors for the competing candidates.

Every state completes that course of at its personal price. This yr, due to all of the lawsuits disputing the outcomes of the 2020 election, there are new procedures in place to expedite challenges to a state’s Certificates of Ascertainment by an aggrieved candidate. As soon as accomplished, copies of the Certificates of Ascertainment are submitted to the U.S. Archivist.

After the governor submits names to the Archivist, every state’s Electoral School electors meet within the state capital – D.C.’s meet in D.C. – to formally solid their votes for president and vp on the primary Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December. This yr, that’s Dec. 17, 2024.

In ways in which differ state by state, every state’s electors put together six Certificates of Vote. One in all them is shipped by registered mail to the president of the U.S. Senate and one other to the Archivist of the US. The remaining 4 certificates are despatched to state officers.

That fulfills the Electoral School’s duties till the following presidential election.

Step 3: Congress meets

On Jan. 6, Congress convenes to depend the electoral votes and certify the winner of the election.

As a result of the sitting vp additionally serves as president of the Senate, Kamala Harris will preside over this depend in 2025, simply as Vice President Mike Pence did in January 2021 when Joe Biden formally turned president-elect. Every state, known as upon in alphabetical order, information its votes.

This course of is often ceremonial, as a result of by January the media has declared a winner and often a concession speech has been given. However, formally, it’s the second of fact.

On Jan. 6, 2021, an armed pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol in an try and cease Congress from certifying Biden’s victory. Each chambers of Congress had been evacuated through the assault, and 5 folks had been killed.

Lawmakers reconvened a couple of hours later. It’s the vp’s job to announce the outcomes and ask whether or not there are any objections. After the violent assault on the Capitol, most Senate Republicans deserted their plans to dispute Biden’s win in 2021, however six nonetheless objected.

Objections should not unprecedented. In 2001 Democratic Home representatives tried for 20 minutes to dam Florida’s extremely contested electoral votes for George W. Bush.

Each of these efforts failed as a result of objections needed to be signed by each a member of the Home and the Senate earlier than being voted on by each chambers of Congress. Lodging challenges received tougher following laws handed in 2022. Now, 20 senators and 87 Home members should again any problem to the certification of a state’s Electoral School outcomes.

In 2021, it fell to Pence, as president of the Senate, to declare Biden – not Trump – the following president of the US. He fulfilled his constitutional responsibility regardless of immense strain from Trump to subvert democracy.

After the Senate certifies the election outcomes, all of the Certificates of Ascertainment and Certificates of Vote develop into out there for public evaluation on the Workplace of the Federal Registrar for one yr, then transferred to the Nationwide Archives for the everlasting report.

Those that query the end result of a U.S. election, in different phrases, can double-check the tabulations themselves.

What occurs in a tie?

Within the extraordinary occasion that no candidate wins within the Electoral School, the Home of Representatives meets to elect the following president. That is how John Quincy Adams turned president in 1824.

Established virtually 250 years in the past, this complicated course of is a basis of American democracy. Many have questioned whether or not this antiquated system really represents the desire of the folks in trendy America.

However for 2024, with a couple of tweaks, it stays the method that can determine the presidential race.

This text was initially revealed through the 2020 presidential election. It was up to date on Nov. 1, 2024.