Last Name. Share this page. Follow Ballotpedia. Click here to follow election results! On January 6 of each year following a presidential election, Congress convenes a joint session In a joint session, the House of Representatives and the Senate meet together. Congress has the discretion to move the date of the session by law, as it did in when the joint session was held on January 4. In these sessions, according to the Electoral Count Act of , members of Congress may object to statewide election results or specific electoral votes in a particular state or the District of Columbia.
Specifically, during the session one member of the U. House and one member of the U. Senate must submit a written objection after the body reads the vote count from a particular state or D.
Once a House member and Senator submit an objection, the two chambers of Congress separate to debate for two hours and to vote on whether to continue counting the votes in light of the objection. Both chambers must vote by a simple majority to concur with the objection for it to stand, otherwise the objection fails.
If both chambers of Congress affirm the objection and the objection results in no one candidate receiving the necessary vote Electoral College majority, the 12th Amendment dictates a congressional process for selecting a president and vice president. The House of Representatives votes to elect the new president. As a bloc, members of the House cast one vote per state, choosing between the three candidates who received the most Electoral College votes.
The Senate votes to elect the Vice President, casting one vote per senator. Since the passage of the Electoral Count Act, there have been two instances of Congressional objections. In , an objection was raised against the North Carolina vote due to the instance of a faithless elector , which was rejected in the Senate and in the House.
They meet on Jan. When they are finished, they announce the winners. One important thing to remember here: The members of Congress who are meeting on Jan.
All of the House members are up for election in November, and one-third of the Senate is up for election. What happens if no one gets a majority of Electoral College votes? Should no candidate get a majority of electoral votes, the election shifts to the House of Representatives.
In the House chamber, each state gets one vote. They can choose between one of the top three vote-getters in the general election. Whoever wins a majority of those votes — 26 — is elected president. The District of Columbia has three electoral votes but is not allowed to vote in this process since it is not a state. To pick a vice president, the same process happens, only it would take place in the Senate. If the House of Representatives fails to elect a president by noon on Jan.
Should the Senate be deadlocked and no vice-president-elect has been chosen by Jan. Can you lose the popular vote and win the electoral college vote? Yes, you can. In , George W. Bush had fewer popular votes but more electoral votes, so he became president. In the unlikely occurrence that both the President-elect and Vice President-elect fail to qualify by the beginning of the presidential term, Congress established an order of succession in 3 U.
There is no Federally-required process to follow if a candidate who is projected to receive electoral votes dies or becomes incapacitated between the general election and the meeting of electors. However, individual States may have their own requirements that govern how electors must vote at the meeting of the electors. In , when Horace Greeley passed away between Election Day and the meeting of electors, the electors who were slated to vote for Greeley voted for various candidates, including Greeley.
The votes cast for Greeley were not counted due to a House resolution passed regarding the matter. Section 3 of the 20th Amendment states that the Vice President elect will become President if the President elect dies or becomes incapacitated.
If a winning Presidential candidate dies or becomes incapacitated between the counting of electoral votes in the Congress and the inauguration, the Vice President elect will become President, according to Section 3 of the 20th Amendment. Title 3 of the United States Code establishes procedures for the Electoral College process and requires that States settle any controversies regarding their electors at least 6 calendar days before the meeting of the electors.
It is up to Congress to determine what to do in the event one or more States cannot meet the statutory deadlines. However, the Constitution does not require that States appoint electors based on the popular vote, so a State may be able to resolve the controversy under State law, appoint electors, and issue a Certificate even if a recount is pending. Even if a State is unable to resolve a controversy by the statutory deadline, nothing prevents the State from appointing electors.
Resolving controversies before the statutory deadline eliminates the potential for one type of challenge during the counting of the votes in Congress. See 3 U. It is important to remember that the President is not chosen by a national popular vote. The Electoral College vote totals determine the winner, not the statistical plurality or majority a candidate may have in the national popular vote totals.
Electoral votes are awarded on the basis of the popular vote in each state. Note that 48 out of the 50 States award Electoral votes on a winner-takes-all basis as does the District of Columbia. In a multi-candidate race where candidates have strong regional appeal, as in , it is quite possible that a candidate who collects the most votes on a nation-wide basis will not win the electoral vote.
In a two-candidate race, that is less likely to occur. This also occurred in the presidential election, where George W. Bush received fewer popular votes than Albert Gore Jr. Trump received fewer popular votes than Hillary Clinton, but received a majority of electoral votes.
In , even though millions more individuals voted for the Democratic candidate than the Republican candidate in CA, PA, and TX if you add the votes from the 3 States , the Democratic party was only awarded the electors appointed in CA.
Because the Republican candidate won the State popular vote in PA and TX, the Republican party was awarded 3 more total electors than the Democratic party. Total - 15,, Democratic votes cast vs 12,, Republican votes cast for the national popular vote, but 55 Democratic electors vs 58 Republican electors appointed based on each State's popular vote.
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