ELECTORAL COLLEGE COUNTING 101
By Lisa Desjardins, @LisaDNews
Correspondent

Tomorrow, the nation will tune in to a historic, if mostly symbolic, joint session of Congress. 

Usually there would be relatively little fanfare. But as the electoral votes from each state reach their final destination at the U.S. Capitol, Republicans in both chambers have declared that they will object to the counting of some states where President Donald Trump lost his closest races to President-elect Joe Biden.  

Here is a look at how this unusual joint session will work and what it could mean. 

How will it work?

• The House and Senate will meet in a joint session at 1 p.m. EST tomorrow.  
• Vice President Mike Pence will preside over the joint session. The role is usually scripted -- he announces procedures and the final result of votes. Pence does not have unilateral power to change the course of the electoral count.
• The joint session will hear the electoral vote count from each state, one by one, in alphabetical order.
• If at least one House member and one Senator object to any state electoral count, the joint session will immediately pause. 
• Next, the chambers will separate, with each holding up to two hours of debate on that state’s electoral count. The chambers will then vote on the objection and return to the joint session.
• For any state electoral count to be rejected, a majority of both the House and Senate must vote that way.
• Back in the joint session, the roll of states will pick up again where it left off.  
• With each objection, the cycle repeats: pause the joint session, two hours of debate, vote, then return to the joint session.
• At the end, the winner of the election is declared by the vice president.

How long will it take? 

• The length of time depends entirely on how many states’s results are objected to in both chambers.
• Right now, the focus is on six swing states where the Trump campaign has previously tried to challenge the results in court: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Those six objections would lead to between 18 and 24 hours of debate and votes.
• But Republicans may also object to other states. Each one would add up to two more hours of debate.
• As a result, some lawmakers and staffers are preparing for a possible all-night session on the electoral count.

Can the objections change the outcome?

• The short answer is: No.  
• The longer answer: The House and Senate would have to vote to block electors from multiple slates in order to take away Biden’s majority win in the Electoral College.  Based on public statements, it does not appear Republicans have enough votes to do that in either chamber, and both are required.

So what is the point of this?

• It depends on who you ask, but some Republicans say they are using their objections to try to argue for and leverage a commission to investigate the 2020 election. 
• Others argue that they believe there was significant fraud and Congress should vote to block electors from sitting in states with suspicious results.
• For Democrats, it is a chance to debate and reject pernicious claims that the election was somehow compromised, which though unproven have sown doubt in the results.

GEORGIA VOTES, AGAIN
By Daniel Bush, @DanielBush
Senior political reporter

Georgia is in the national spotlight Tuesday as voters head to the polls in two runoff races that will determine control of the Senate -- and set the course for President-elect Joe Biden’s agenda in Congress.

The PBS NewsHour will be following the returns closely. As we wait for results, here’s a mini-guide to the runoffs and what’s at stake for both parties.

Who is running?

• There are two Senate runoffs. One features Republican David Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff, a journalist and former congressional aide. Perdue was elected in 2014 and held the seat until Jan. 3, when the new Congress was sworn in and his term expired. The seat will remain vacant until the winner of the race is sworn into office.
• The other runoff is between Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock, the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Republican Gov. Brain Kemp appointed Loeffler to the seat to fill out the term of former GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson after he stepped down in 2019. The winner of the special election will carry out the rest of his term and be able to run as an incumbent for a full six-year term in 2022.

Why are there two runoffs?

• Under Georgia state law, if no candidate receives 50 percent or more of the total vote in the general election, the two top vote-getters advance to a runoff election. That happened in both of the Senate races last November, setting up the simultaneous Jan. 5 runoffs.
• Perdue nearly avoided a runoff, finishing with 49.7 percent of the vote in the general election. No candidate came close to reaching 50 percent in the special election to fill the remaining two years of Isakson’s term. Warnock finished first with 32.9 percent of the vote, followed by Loeffler who received 25.9 percent. 

What’s at stake?

• Control of the Senate. Republicans can retain control of the upper chamber if they win one of the two runoff races. Democrats must win both races to have a 50-50 tie in the Senate, which would give Vice President-elect Kamala Harris the tie-breaking vote. 
• If Republicans hold onto the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would be able to thwart much of Biden’s legislative agenda. Democrats could still pass bills in the House, but without enough votes in the Senate, many of Biden’s campaign promises would likely go unfulfilled in his first two years in office.
• A Democratic sweep in Georgia would give Biden a chance to pursue legislation on the economy, coronavirus pandemic, climate change, and racial justice. But Democrats would have little margin for error in both chambers. The party has a slim majority in the House. With 50 votes, Democrats in the Senate could pass some legislation using a parliamentary maneuver known as budget reconciliation. 

When will we know the results? 

• Election officials cannot start counting votes until the polls close at 7 p.m. Tuesday. But counties started processing mail-in ballots ahead of Election Day in order to speed up the vote-counting process and avoid a lengthy delay in declaring winners. 
• In November, it took more than a week for Biden to be declared the winner in Georgia, in large part because of the extra time needed to count the record number of mail-in ballots. Fewer people cast mail-in ballots in the runoffs, but with nearly 1 million mail-in votes to be counted, the results may take several days.

FIVE OVERLOOKED POLITICAL STORIES FROM THE PAST WEEK
By Ian Couzens, @iancouzenz
Politics production assistant

Trump's unplanned gift to Biden: Clean energy on the rise - Dec. 29. Weak prices for natural gas and crude oil and growing pressure to address climate change forced nearly 50 oil and gas companies to close in 2020. Why it matters: Inheriting such a different energy industry from the one Trump faced four years ago could generate momentum for President-elect Joe Biden’s energy platform, which aims to wean the country off fossil fuels. -- Politico

Census Bureau to miss deadline, jeopardizing Trump’s plan to exclude people in the country illegally - Dec. 30. Census Bureau officials missed their year-end deadline and internal documents show they don’t expect apportionment numbers to be ready until days after Biden's inauguration. Why it matters: Upon taking office, Biden could rescind Trump's presidential memorandum directing the Census Bureau to exclude undocumented immigrants from the official population count, which is used for determining how many seats each state gets in the U.S. House of Representatives, among other things, including how $1.5 trillion in federal funding is distributed each year. -- The Associated Press

Scoop: Trump administration declassifies unconfirmed intel on Chinese bounties - Dec. 30.  The uncorroborated intelligence that China offered to pay non-state actors to attack U.S. troops in Afghanistan was disclosed just months after Trump received criticism for not addressing similar reports that Russia had been placing bounties on American soldiers. Why it matters: If the report is true, it would dramatically escalate tensions with China; however, if the intelligence is inaccurate, it raises questions about the motivations of those who put together the report and Trump’s decision to declassify it less than two weeks after he was first briefed about it. -- Axios

Trump vetoes bipartisan driftnet fishing bill - Jan. 1. The bill, aimed at protecting non-target species of fish by gradually eliminating the use of large driftnets off the West Coast, had broad bipartisan support in Congress, and was pushed by conservationists and recreational fishers. Why it matters: After the National Defense Authorization Act, this is the president’s second veto in recent weeks as he continues to exercise his office and manipulate U.S. policy. -- The Hill

Mitch McConnell’s Slipping Grip on the Republican Party - Jan. 4. 2024 hopefuls looking to win over Trump loyalists and their unwavering support are splintering the party's ranks as they continue to challenge the presidential election results, in defiance of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s wishes. Why it matters: With his Republican majority dwindling, McConnell’s influence during the Biden administration rests on his ability to keep the party unified.  -- The Atlantic 


#POLITICSTRIVIA
By Matt Loffman, @MattLoff
Deputy senior politics producer

Congress will meet Wednesday to count the Electoral College votes from the presidential election and certify Joe Biden’s win. But a number of Republicans in both chambers say they will object to the certification of results in several battleground states. The last time both a representative and senator formally objected to the Electoral College count was in 2004. 

Our questions: Who were the members who objected and which state’s vote did they object to?

Send your answers to [email protected] or tweet using #PoliticsTrivia. The first correct answers will earn a shout-out next week.

Last time, we asked: Who was the first president to hold an official White House Hanukkah party?

The answer: President George W. Bush.

Though every president since Jimmy Carter has recognized Hanukkah with a special Menorah lighting ceremony, and President Bill Clinton included Jewish leaders in a large annual “holiday party,” it wasn’t until 2001 that an official Hanukkah party was held at the White House. Bush said the party was meant to underscore that the White House “belongs to people of all faiths.”

Congratulations to our winners: Susan Kupsky and Robin Robinowitz!

Thank you all for reading and watching. We’ll drop into your inbox next week.