Congress certifies 2024 presidential election without Democrat objection
Congress formally certified the Electoral College votes of the 2024 presidential election Monday, officially sealing the electoral victory of President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance.
The certification of the Republican victory took place without a single objection from a congressional Democrat for the first time since 1988.
The vote count was read by Sens. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who served as tellers for the Senate. Reps. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., and Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., served as tellers for the House of Representatives. Each took turns reading the tallies from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
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According to the final count, Trump secured 312 electoral college votes, placing him far above the 270 needed to win the presidency.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who presided over the count in her role as president of the Senate, won 226 electoral votes.
The proceedings wrapped up within a short 30 minutes, marking a much better time than the 14 hours and 48 minutes it took in 2021.
The certification came four years after a mob of Trump supporters protested the 2020 presidential election at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, with some entering the building and forcing legislators to hide.
Nearly 1,600 people still face charges related to the Jan. 6 riot, and Trump has promised to grant clemency to at least some of them.
Though congressional Democrats have objected to every certification of a Republican president since George W. Bush in 2001, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., suggested that this year's certification was peaceful because Democrats "have no election deniers on our side of the aisle, and we try to act as constitutional patriots, adhering to the processes set forth in the Constitution."
Speaking in a recorded message before the count, Harris said, "The peaceful transfer of power is one of the most fundamental principles of American democracy. As much as any other principle, it is what distinguishes our system of government from monarchy or tyranny."
A legislative overhaul of the 1887 Electoral Count Act in 2022 raised the threshold by which legislators could force votes attempting to overturn a state's certified result, and also clarified that the vice president's role in the proceedings were merely ceremonial.
The certification came amid barricades and heightened security measures around the Capitol, as well as a winter storm in Washington, D.C., that shut down schools and many federal buildings. Former President Jimmy Carter's state funeral is expected to further snarl the nation's capital later this week.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com
