[Deschler's Precedents, Volume 3, Chapters 10 - 14]
[Chapter 10. Presidential Elections; Electoral College]
[Â§ 2. Joint Sessions to Count Electoral Votes]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[Page 1563-1567]
 
                               CHAPTER 10
 
               Presidential Elections; Electoral College
 
Sec. 2. Joint Sessions to Count Electoral Votes

Concurrent Resolution Providing for Joint Session

Sec. 2.1 A concurrent resolution providing for a joint session to count 
    the electoral votes for President and Vice President may be 
    originated by the Senate.

    On Jan. 3, 1973,(19) Mr. Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr., of 
Massachusetts,
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19. 119 Cong. Rec. 30, 93d Cong. 1st Sess. For additional recent 
        examples see 115 Cong. Rec. 36, 91st Cong. 1st Sess., Jan. 3, 
        1969; 111 Cong. Rec. 26, 89th Cong. 1st Sess., Jan. 4, 1965; 
        and 107 Cong. Rec. 26, 87th Cong. 1st Sess., Jan. 3, 1961.
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called up and asked for the immediate consideration of a Senate 
concurrent resolution:

                               S. Con. Res. 1

        Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives 
    concurring), That the two Houses of Congress shall meet in the Hall 
    of the House of Representatives on Saturday, the 6th day of January 
    1973, at 1 o'clock postmeridian, pursuant to the requirements of 
    the Constitution and laws relating to the election of President and 
    Vice President of the United States, and the President of the 
    Senate shall be their Presiding Officer; that two tellers shall be 
    previously appointed by the President of the Senate on the part of 
    the Senate and two by the Speaker on the part of the House of 
    Representatives, to whom shall be handed, as they are opened by the 
    President of the Senate, all the certificates and papers purporting 
    to be certificates of the electoral votes, which certificates and 
    papers shall be opened, presented, and acted upon in the 
    alphabetical order of the States, beginning with the letter ``A''; 
    and said tellers, having then read the same in the presence and 
    hearing of the two Houses, shall make a list of the votes as they 
    shall appear from the said certificates; and the votes having been 
    ascertained and counted in the manner and according to the rules by 
    law provided, the result of the same shall be delivered to the 
    President of the Senate, who shall thereupon announce the state of 
    the vote, which announcement shall be deemed a sufficient 
    declaration of the persons, if any, elected President and Vice 
    President of the United States, and, together with a list of the 
    votes, be entered on the Journals of the two Houses.

    The Senate concurrent resolution was agreed to.

Recesses

Sec. 2.2 The Speaker may be authorized to declare a recess in 
    connection with the convening of the two Houses in joint session to 
    count the electoral vote for President and Vice President.

    On Jan. 3, 1973,(20~) the House considered and agreed to 
a Senate concurrent resolution (1) providing for the 
convening on Jan. 6, 1973, of a joint session of the two Houses to 
count the electoral vote. Mr. Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr., of Massachusetts, 
then made a unanimous-consent request, as follows:
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20. 119 Cong. Rec. 30, 93d Cong. 1st Sess. For further illustrations 
        see 115 Cong. Rec. 36, 91st Cong. 1st Sess., Jan. 3, 1969; 111 
        Cong. Rec. 26, 89th Cong. 1st Sess., Jan. 4, 1965; and 107 
        Cong. Rec. 26, 87th Cong. 1st Sess., Jan. 3, 1961.
 1. S. Con. Res. 1.
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        Mr. O'Neill: Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that on 
    Saturday, January 6, 1973, it may be in order for the Speaker to 
    declare a recess at any time subject to the call of the Chair.

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        The Speaker: (2) Is there objection to the request 
    of the gentleman from Massachusetts?
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 2. Carl Albert (Okla.).
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        There was no objection.

    Parliamentarian's Note: The Speaker declares a recess of the House 
to enable the Members to reconvene in joint session with the Senate in 
the House Chamber.

Sec. 2.3 On the day fixed by law and concurrent resolution for the 
    convening of the joint session to count the electoral votes for 
    President and Vice President, the Speaker declined to recognize for 
    one-minute speeches or extensions of remarks before recessing the 
    House subject to the call of the Chair.

    On Jan. 6, 1973,(3) the Speaker (4) made an 
announcement to the House:
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 3. 119 Cong. Rec. 378, 93d Cong. 1st Sess. For an additional example 
        see 115 Cong. Rec. 145, 91st Cong. 1st Sess., Jan. 6, 1969.
 4. Carl Albert (Okla.).
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        The Speaker: The Chair desires to make a statement.
        The Chair desires deferment of unanimous-consent requests and 
    also 1-minute speeches until after the formal ceremony of the day, 
    which is the counting of the electoral votes for President and Vice 
    President. Therefore, pursuant to the order adopted on Wednesday, 
    January 3, 1973,\(5)\ the Chair declares the House in recess until 
    approximately 12:45 o'clock p.m.
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 5. 119 Cong. Rec. 30, 93d Cong. 1st Sess.
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        Accordingly (at 12 o'clock and 3 minutes p.m.), the House stood 
    in recess subject to the call of the Chair.

Convening of the Joint Session

Sec. 2.4 The two Houses convene in joint session to open the 
    certificates and ascertain and count the votes cast by the electors 
    of the several states for President and Vice President.

    On Jan. 6, 1973,\(6)\ the President of the Senate \(7)\ called to 
order a joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives, 
convened pursuant to the provisions of a Senate concurrent resolution 
\(8)\ to carry out Congress'

[[Page 1566]]

constitutional and statutory responsibilities relative to opening the 
certificates and ascertaining and counting the votes of the electors of 
the several states for President and Vice President.
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 6. 119 Cong. Rec. 378, 93d Cong. 1st Sess. For other examples of joint 
        sessions convened to count the electoral vote cast in recent 
        elections see 115 Cong. Rec. 145, 91st Cong. 1st Sess., Jan. 6, 
        1969; 111 Cong. Rec. 136, 89th Cong. 1st Sess., Jan. 6, 1965; 
        and 107 Cong. Rec. 288, 87th Cong. 1st Sess., Jan. 6, 1961.
 7. Spiro T. Agnew (Md.).
 8. S. Con. Res. 1, agreed to by the House at 119 Cong. Rec. 30, 93d 
        Cong. 1st Sess., Jan. 3, 1973. For additional examples of House 
        agreement to concurrent resolutions providing for joint 
        sessions to count electoral votes, see 115 Cong. Rec. 36, 91st 
        Cong. 1st Sess., Jan. 3, 1969; 111 Cong. Rec. 26, 89th Cong. 
        1st Sess., Jan. 4, 1965; and 107 Cong. Rec. 26, 87th Cong. 1st 
        Sess., Jan. 3, 1961.
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Presiding Officer

Sec. 2.5 In the absence of the President of the Senate, the President 
    pro tempore of the Senate presides over the joint session to count 
    the electoral votes for President and Vice President.

    On Jan. 6, 1969,\(9)\ in the absence of the President of the 
Senate, \(10)\ the President pro tempore of the Senate \(11)\ presided 
over the joint session to count the electoral votes for President and 
Vice President of the United States.
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 9. 115 Cong. Rec. 145, 91st Cong. 1st Sess. See also 111 Cong. Rec. 
        136, 89th Cong. 1st Sess., Jan. 6, 1965.
10. On Jan. 6, 1969, the President of the Senate, Hubert H. Humphrey, 
        (Minn.), who was the incumbent Vice President and the losing 
        candidate for President in the 1968 election, declined to 
        preside over the joint session to count the electoral votes. On 
        Jan. 6, 1965, the office of the President of the Senate was 
        vacant, the former Vice President, Lyndon B. Johnson (Tex.), 
        having ascended to the Presidency upon the death of his 
        predecessor, Nov. 22, 1963.
11. Richard B. Russell (Ga.).
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Procedure

Sec. 2.6 Where the two Houses meet to count the electoral vote, a joint 
    session is convened pursuant to a concurrent resolution of the two 
    Houses which incorporates by reference the applicable provisions of 
    the United States Code; and the procedures set forth in those 
    provisions are in effect constituted as a joint rule of the two 
    Houses for the occasion and govern the procedures in the joint 
    session and in both Houses in the event they divide to consider an 
    objection.

    On Jan. 6, 1969,\(12)\ the two Houses convened in joint session to 
count the electoral vote. The joint session was convened pursuant to a 
Senate concurrent resolution \(13)\ which incorporated the votecounting 
procedures set forth in 3 USC Sec. Sec. 15-18. A written objection was 
made to the count of
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12. 115 Cong. Rec. 145-47, 169-72, 91st Cong. 1st Sess.
13. 13. S. Con. Res. 1.
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North Carolina's electoral vote. Thereupon, pursuant to the provisions 
of 3 USC Sec. Sec. 15-18, the joint session divided, the Senate 
repairing to the Senate Chamber, and the objection was submitted to and 
considered in each House convened in separate sessions.