Can Kamala Harris Certify Her Hang Election Result?

Kamala Harris must certify the presidential election consequence, without reference to whether she wins or loses.

This could well well be her sole project to officially sigh the outcomes of the election.

Below the U.S. structure, a vp is mechanically president of the Senate and it’s miles the function of the Senate president to officially sigh the outcomes of a presidential election.

As the Senate web site explains: “The Constitution names the vp of the United States as the president of the Senate. To boot to serving as presiding officer, the vp … formally presides over the receiving and counting of electoral ballots solid in presidential elections.”

The Wilson Center, which experiences democratic institutions and honest governance, states on its web site that the Senate president “is charged with counting the electoral votes for president and vp and announcing the winners.”

This second function for the vp has led to a few heated scenes previously, with some politicians begging vice presidents now to no longer certify a presidential election consequence.

On January 6, 2001, more than a dozen Democratic individuals of Congress begged vp Al Gore now to no longer certify his occupy defeat in the 2000 presidential election.

They lodged more than 20 objections. Gore brushed apart each and every person as the objectors had been all individuals of the Home of Representatives and wished now no longer now no longer as a lot as one Senator to conform to their objections.

It adopted 36 days of turmoil following the November 7, 2000 election, with the Florida consequence hotly contested between Gore and Republican candidate George W. Bush.

Most of those objecting to Gore’s certification had been individuals of the Congressional Unlit Caucus and they also walked out of the joint session of Congress, on behalf of what Democratic congresswomen Sheila Jackson-Lee launched had been “the thousands and thousands of Americans who had been disenfranchised by Florida’s mistaken vote count.”

Whereas dismissing each and every of their objections, Gore requested: “Is the level of repeat signed by a senator?”

“I save now no longer care that it’s now no longer signed by a senator,” Democratic congresswoman Maxine Waters retorted sooner than walking out.

Gore told her: “You’ll want to well be informed that the tips enact care,” he acknowledged.

Congressman Jesse L. Jackson Jr. told Gore: “Or now no longer it’s a unhappy day in The United States after we are in a position to now no longer glean a senator to signal these objections,” the Los Angeles Cases reported at the time.

The struggle and the stroll out became once captured in Michael Moore’s documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11one amongst the easiest grossing U.S. documentaries of all time.

The importance of the vp’s function in certifying the election became once also considered when Donald Trump build stress on his vp, Mike Pencenow to no longer certify the outcomes of the 2020 election.

Pence believed it became once his responsibility to certify Joe Biden‘s web.

Trump criticized Biden in a Twitter message on January 6, 2021, as Trump protesters had been seeking to rupture into Congress while it became once certifying the election.

Trump became once later charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official continuing; obstruction and attempting to obstruct an official continuing; and conspiracy against rights in connection with an alleged stress marketing campaign on declare officers to reverse the 2020 election outcomes.

Trump has pleaded now no longer responsible to all prices against him and plenty instances acknowledged he is the sufferer of a political witch hunt.

On July 1, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Trump has immunity from prosecution for his communications with Pence while Pence became once appearing as vp.

It also ruled that Trump has “presumptive immunity” from his makes an are attempting to conclude Pence from certifying the election while Pence became once appearing as Senate president.

If Kamala Harris certifies the electoral college votes and publicizes herself the winner, she is now no longer going to be the first vp to enact so. In 1796, when John Adams became once vp, he declared himself the president in the Senate, having beaten Thomas Jefferson. Four years later, Jefferson became once vp and declared himself the president after counting the votes in the Senate.

Replace: 11/05/24 07:55 a.m. ET: This article became once up to this point to consist of facts of past vice presidents certifying their very occupy victories in presidential elections.