This concurrent resolution directs the two Houses of Congress to meet in the Hall of the House of Representatives on January 6, 2025, at 1:00 p.m. to perform the formal counting of electoral votes for President and Vice President. It identifies the President of the Senate as the Presiding Officer for that meeting.
The resolution also sets out the basic procedural mechanics for the event: it contemplates appointed tellers from each chamber to receive and read certificates and papers purporting to be electoral certificates, mandates an alphabetical state order beginning with the letter “A,” requires the tellers to make a list of the votes as they appear, and directs the President of the Senate to announce the result and have the list entered on the Journals of the two Houses. For congressional staff, state election officials, and counsel, the document is a routine but essential operational blueprint for the constitutional counting step.
At a Glance
What It Does
Establishes the time, place, and presiding officer for the January 6, 2025 joint session and prescribes a ministerial sequence: opening and presenting certificates, reading them aloud, tabulating votes, and recording the result. It requires two tellers from each chamber to be previously appointed to handle certificates and make the tabulation.
Who It Affects
Directly affects congressional officers and staff (Presiding Officer, appointed tellers, House and Senate clerks), state election officials responsible for delivering electoral certificates, and the offices of presidential and vice-presidential candidates who monitor certification. It informs practical logistics—security, staffing, and document handling—on the day of the count.
Why It Matters
This resolution operationalizes the constitutional counting requirement without changing substantive electoral law; it sets the procedural baseline that determines how certificates are presented, read, and recorded. That baseline matters because it frames the ministerial steps that finalize the electoral vote tally and creates the official congressional record of the result.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The resolution is a short, procedural instrument that does three things: it schedules the joint meeting, assigns the presiding role, and describes how certificates will be handled and recorded. The meeting is to take place in the House chamber at 1 p.m. on January 6, 2025, and the President of the Senate is designated to preside.
That designation matters in practice because the Presiding Officer controls the order of proceedings and announces the final result.
On mechanics, the resolution requires that two tellers previously appointed by the President of the Senate (on the Senate side) and two by the Speaker (on the House side) receive, open, and read aloud the certificates and any accompanying papers “as they are opened by the President of the Senate.” The tellers then prepare a list of votes as they appear on those documents. The resolution specifies that certificates will be presented and acted upon in alphabetical order of the States, beginning with the letter "A," which fixes the reading sequence but does not alter the substance of the certificates themselves.After the tellers have read and made the list, the votes are to be ascertained and counted “in the manner and according to the rules by law provided,” and the result is delivered to the President of the Senate.
The President’s announcement of the state of the vote is treated as a sufficient declaration of the persons, if any, elected President and Vice President; the announcement and the list of votes are to be entered on the Journals of the two Houses. The resolution therefore codifies the ministerial steps that produce the formal congressional record but does not create new adjudicative processes for contested electoral returns.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The joint meeting is scheduled for Monday, January 6, 2025, at 1:00 p.m. in the Hall of the House of Representatives.
The resolution designates the President of the Senate as the Presiding Officer for the counting session.
Two tellers appointed by the President of the Senate and two appointed by the Speaker will receive, open, read, and tabulate the certificates and related papers.
Certificates and papers are to be opened, presented, and acted upon in alphabetical order of the States, beginning with the letter “A.”, After the tellers prepare the list of votes, the President of the Senate announces the result and the list is entered on the Journals of both Houses as the sufficient declaration of who is elected.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Time and place for the joint session
This provision sets the meeting for January 6, 2025 at 1:00 p.m. in the Hall of the House of Representatives. For planners, that fixes venue-specific logistics: chamber staffing levels, access control, press accommodations, and coordination between House and Senate floor operations for that precise day and hour.
Presiding officer
The resolution names the President of the Senate as the Presiding Officer. That assignment has practical effect: the Presiding Officer opens the session, controls the sequence in which certificates are opened, and ultimately delivers the formal announcement of the vote tally that will be entered into the Journals.
Appointment and role of tellers
It requires two tellers appointed by the President of the Senate for the Senate’s side and two appointed by the Speaker for the House’s side. Those tellers receive the certificates as they are opened, read them in the presence of both Houses, and prepare the list of votes that becomes the working record for the announcement—so the choice of tellers matters operationally for accuracy and chain-of-custody procedures.
Order and handling of certificates
Certificates and any papers purporting to be certificates must be opened, presented, and acted upon in the alphabetical order of the States, beginning with the letter “A.” This prescribes an explicit reading sequence that avoids ad hoc ordering disputes on the floor but does not address how to handle multiple or competing certificates for the same State.
Tabulation, announcement, and entry on the Journals
After the tellers read and list the votes, the resolution directs that the votes be ascertained and counted “in the manner and according to the rules by law provided,” and that the President of the Senate announce the results. That announcement is defined as a sufficient declaration of the persons elected, and the list of votes is to be entered on the Journals of both Houses—creating the official congressional record of the outcome.
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Who Benefits
- Congressional floor and clerical staff—receive a clear, preauthorized procedural script to coordinate staffing, document handling, and record entry for the joint session, reducing uncertainty about on-the-day roles.
- State election officials and Secretaries of State—gain clarity on how certificates will be received and in what sequence they will be presented to Congress, which helps prioritize delivery logistics and chain-of-custody documentation.
- Candidates and political campaigns—obtain predictability around the ministerial counting process and the form of the congressional record, which limits procedural ambiguity that could complicate post-certification communications.
Who Bears the Cost
- House and Senate administrative offices—must allocate personnel and resources (tellers, clerks, security) for the specified date and venue, incurring routine operational costs.
- State election offices—may face compressed deadlines and logistics costs to ensure timely delivery of certificates and supporting papers to Congress or designated federal channels.
- Congressional counsel and floor managers—carry the operational and legal burden if discrepancies arise between certificates and statutory counting rules, yet the resolution does not provide additional statutory dispute-resolution tools, so they must manage any on-the-floor issues with existing authorities.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central tension is between providing a clear, predictable ministerial procedure for the congressional counting event and the resolution’s deliberate deference to existing law for resolving contested returns—meaning it improves day-of logistics but does not reduce legal or political uncertainty when certificates conflict or defects appear.
The resolution is narrowly procedural and does not alter substantive election law or the statutory framework that governs contested electoral returns. That narrowness is both its strength and limitation: by prescribing order and a ministerial reading process it reduces uncertainty about floor mechanics, but it leaves open how competing or irregular certificates will be resolved because it merely defers to “the rules by law provided.” Implementing officials will therefore need to reconcile this procedural script with the Electoral Count Act and any relevant judicial orders when disputes arise.
The text also leaves unanswered practical questions about document chain-of-custody, the handling of multiple certificates from a single State, and contingencies for missing or late-delivered papers. Those gaps create operational risk: if a State’s certificate is unavailable or a contest over a certificate’s authenticity emerges during the session, the resolution supplies no on-the-floor adjudicatory steps or timetables, pushing the burden onto existing statutes, precedent, and the discretion of presiding and floor officers.
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