Congress Meets in Joint Session to Read and Ratify Electoral Votes
The House and Senate are coming together in a centuries-old tradition to count the electoral votes from the November election and formally declare that Barack Obama will be the 44th president of the United States.
Vice President Dick Cheney will take a seat next to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to preside over the joint session of Congress on Thursday. In what could be his last act as president of the Senate, Cheney was to hand the certificates from each state’s electors to the tellers — two members each from the House and the Senate — to be read off and tallied.
At the conclusion of the state-by-state rundown, Cheney was to read the tally sheet and announce the results — that Obama has been elected president and Joe Biden will succeed Cheney as vice president.
The 12th Amendment, ratified in 1804, directs the electors chosen by the states to meet and vote for president and vice president, conveying the results to the president of the Senate.