3 U.S.C. § 15 Counting Electoral Votes In Congress

• Library: United States Statutes
• Edition: 2023 Edition
• Currency: Current through P.L. 118-19 (published on www.congress.gov on 10/06/2023)

(a) IN GENERAL.-Congress shall be in session on the sixth day of January succeeding every meeting of the electors. The Senate and House of Representatives shall meet in the Hall of the House of Representatives at the hour of 1 o'clock in the afternoon on that day, and the President of the Senate shall be their presiding officer.

(b) POWERS OF THE PRESIDENT OF SENATE.-

(1) MINISTERIAL IN NATURE.-Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, the role of the President of the Senate while presiding over the joint session shall be limited to performing solely ministerial duties.

(2) POWERS EXPLICITLY DENIED.-The President of the Senate shall have no power to solely determine, accept, reject, or otherwise adjudicate or resolve disputes over the proper certificate of ascertainment of appointment of electors, the validity of electors, or the votes of electors.

(c) APPOINTMENT OF TELLERS.-At the joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives described in subsection (a), there shall be present two tellers previously appointed on the part of the Senate and two tellers previously appointed on the part of the House of Representatives by the presiding officers of the respective chambers.

(d) PROCEDURE AT JOINT SESSION GENERALLY.-

(1) IN GENERAL.-The President of the Senate shall-

(A) open the certificates and papers purporting to be certificates of the votes of electors appointed pursuant to a certificate of ascertainment of appointment of electors issued pursuant to section 5, in the alphabetical order of the States, beginning with the letter A; and

(B) upon opening any certificate, hand the certificate and any accompanying papers to the tellers, who shall read the same in the presence and hearing of the two Houses.

(2) ACTION ON CERTIFICATE.-

(A) IN GENERAL.-Upon the reading of each certificate or paper, the President of the Senate shall call for objections, if any.

(B) REQUIREMENTS FOR OBJECTIONS OR QUESTIONS.-

(i) OBJECTIONS.-No objection or other question arising in the matter shall be in order unless the objection or question-

(I) is made in writing;

(II) is signed by at least one-fifth of the Senators duly chosen and sworn and one-fifth of the Members of the House of Representatives duly chosen and sworn; and

(III) in the case of an objection, states clearly and concisely, without argument, one of the grounds listed under clause (ii).

(ii) GROUNDS FOR OBJECTIONS.-The only grounds for objections shall be as follows: