In the United States, a certificate of ascertainment is an official document that identifies a state's appointed electors for U.S. President and Vice President, and the final vote count for each candidate that received popular votes. [1]
In the United States, a certificate of ascertainment is an official document that identifies a state's appointed electors for U.S. President and Vice President, and the final vote count for each candidate that received popular votes. [1]
After a presidential election, [2] [3] the ascertainment is submitted by the governor of each state (and by the mayor of the District of Columbia) to the Archivist of the United States [4] [5] [6] and others, [7] in accordance with 3 U.S.C. §§ 6–14 [8] [9] the Electoral Count Act, [10] [11] and the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022. Within the United States' electoral system, the certificates "[represent] a crucial link between the popular vote and votes cast by electors". [12]
The certificates must bear the state seal and the governor's signature. Each state is free to choose the appearance and layout of the certificate. Staff from the Office of the Federal Register ensure that each certificate contains all legally required information. [13] States are required to produce either seven original certificates with two certified copies, or nine original certificates; of these, one original and either two more originals or two copies, are sent to the Archivist via registered mail or a commercial carrier. Both the House and the Senate receive one of the copies. [13]
When each state's electors meet to vote (on the first Monday after the second Wednesday of December), [3] they sign and record their vote on six "certificates of the vote", [9] [11] which are then paired with the six remaining certificates of ascertainment. One pair of certificates is sent to the president of the Senate; two pairs are sent to the Archivist; two pairs are sent via registered mail to the state's secretary of state; and one pair is sent to the chief judge of the closest United States district court. [14] [15] One of each of the two pairs sent to the Archivist and the secretary of state are designated for public inspection, while the others (and the chief judge's copy) are "held subject to the order of the President of the United States Senate". [13] The Archivist must receive the certificates by the fourth Wednesday in December, [11] and may take "extraordinary measures to retrieve duplicate originals" otherwise. [13]
The Vice President, as President of the Senate, opens the certificates in alphabetical order by state during a joint session of Congress in the House chamber on January 6 and gives them to one of four "tellers" (two from the House and two from the Senate), who tally the vote while seated at the clerks' desks. [15] [16]
In the United States, the Electoral College is the group of presidential electors that is formed every four years during the presidential election for the sole purpose of voting for the president and vice president. The process is described in Article Two of the Constitution. The number of electoral votes exercised by each state is equal to that state's congressional delegation which is the number of Senators (two) plus the number of Representatives for that state. Each state appoints electors using legal procedures determined by its legislature. Federal office holders, including senators and representatives, cannot be electors. Additionally, the Twenty-third Amendment granted the federal District of Columbia three electors. A simple majority of electoral votes is required to elect the president and vice president. If no candidate achieves a majority, a contingent election is held by the House of Representatives, to elect the president, and by the Senate, to elect the vice president.
Title 3 of the United States Code outlines the role of the President of the United States in the United States Code.
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The count of the Electoral College ballots during a joint session of the 115th United States Congress, pursuant to the Electoral Count Act, on January 6, 2017, was the final step to confirm then-President-elect Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 presidential election over Hillary Clinton.
The Trump fake electors plot was a scheme to submit fraudulent certificates of ascertainment to falsely claim U.S. president Donald Trump had won the electoral college vote in certain states, following Trump's loss in the 2020 United States presidential election. After the results of the 2020 election determined Trump had lost, the scheme was devised by him, his associates, and Republican Party officials in seven states, and it formed a significant part of attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election made by Trump and his associates. The intent of the scheme was to pass the fraudulent certificates to then-vice president Mike Pence in the hope he would count them, rather than the authentic certificates, and thus overturn Joe Biden's victory. This scheme was defended by a fringe legal theory developed by Trump attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and John Eastman, detailed in the Eastman memos, which claimed a vice president has the constitutional discretion to swap official electors with an alternate slate during the certification process, thus changing the outcome of the electoral college vote and the overall winner of the presidential race. The scheme came to be known as the Pence Card. By June 2024, dozens of Republican state officials and Trump associates had been indicted in four states for their alleged involvement. The federal Smith special counsel investigation is investigating Trump's role in the events. According to testimony Trump was aware of the fake electors scheme, and knew that Eastman's plan for Pence to obstruct the certification of electoral votes was a violation of the Electoral Count Act.
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