WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress certified President-elect Donald Trump as the winner of the 2024 election in proceedings that unfolded Monday without mayhem, in stark contrast to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol unrest.
Lawmakers convened under heavy security and a snowstorm to meet the date required by law to certify the election, but the legacy of Jan. 6 leaves an extraordinary fact: The candidate who wanted to overturn the previous election won this time and is legitimately returning to power.
Vice President Kamala Harris, presiding over proceedings as the role of the office, read the tally.
The chamber broke into applause, first Republicans for Trump, then Democrats for Harris.
The whole process happened swiftly and without unrest. One by one, the state results were read aloud by the tellers as senators and representatives sat in seats in the House chamber. Vice President-elect JD Vance joined his former colleagues. Within half an hour the process was done.
No violence, protests or even procedural objections in Congress this time. Republicans who challenged the 2020 election results when Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden have no qualms this year after he defeated Harris.
And Democrats frustrated by Trump’s 312-226 Electoral College victory nevertheless accept the choice of the American voters. Even the winter snow blanketing the grounds didn't interfere with Jan. 6, the day set by law to certify the vote.
Trump said in a Monday post online that Congress was certifying a “GREAT” election victory and called it “A BIG MOMENT IN HISTORY.”
Still, American democracy has proven to be resilient, and Congress, the branch of government closest to the people, was coming together to affirm the choice of Americans.
With pomp and tradition, the day unfolded as it has countless times before, with the arrival of ceremonial mahogany boxes filled with the electoral certificates from the states.
Harris presided over the counting, as is the requirement for the vice president, and certify her own defeat — much the way Democrat Al Gore did in 2001 and Republican Richard Nixon in 1961.
The House chaplain, Margaret Kibben, who delivered a prayer during the mayhem four years ago, gave a simple request as the chamber opened to “shine your light in the darkness.”
There are new procedural rules in place. Under changes to the Electoral Count Act, it now requires one-fifth of lawmakers, instead of just one in each chamber, to raise any objections to election results. With security as tight as it is for the Super Bowl or the Olympics, law enforcement is on high alert for intruders. No tourists will be allowed.
But none of that is expected to be necessary.