Kamala Harris must certify the presidential election result, regardless of whether she wins or loses.
It will be her sole task to officially declare the result of the election.
Under the U.S. constitution, a vice president is automatically president of the Senate and it is the role of the Senate president to officially declare the result of a presidential election.
As the Senate website explains: “The Constitution names the vice president of the United States as the president of the Senate. In addition to serving as presiding officer, the vice president … formally presides over the receiving and counting of electoral ballots cast in presidential elections.”
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The Wilson Center, which reviews democratic institutions and good governance, states on its website that the Senate president “is charged with counting the electoral votes for president and vice president and announcing the winners.”
This second role for the vice president has led to some heated scenes in the past, with some politicians begging vice presidents not to certify a presidential election result.
On January 6, 2001, more than a dozen Democratic members of Congress begged vice president Al Gore not to certify his own defeat in the 2000 presidential election.
They lodged more than 20 objections. Gore dismissed each one as the objectors were all members of the House of Representatives and needed at least one Senator to agree to their objections.
It followed 36 days of turmoil following the November 7, 2000 election, with the Florida result hotly contested between Gore and the Republican candidate, George W. Bush.
Most of those objecting to Gore’s certification were members of the Congressional Black Caucus and they walked out of the joint session of Congress, on behalf of what Democratic congresswomen, Sheila Jackson-Lee, announced were “the millions of Americans who have been disenfranchised by Florida’s inaccurate vote count.”
While dismissing each of their objections, Gore asked: “Is the point of order signed by a senator?”
“I don’t care that it is not signed by a senator,” Democratic congresswoman Maxine Waters retorted before walking out.
Gore told her: “You will be advised that the rules do care,” he said.
Congressman Jesse L. Jackson Jr. told Gore, “It’s a sad day in America when we can’t find a senator to sign these objections,” the Los Angeles Times reported at the time.
The conflict and the walk out was captured in Michael Moore’s documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11, one of the highest grossing U.S. documentaries of all time.
The importance of the vice president’s role in certifying the election was also seen when Donald Trump put pressure on his vice president, Mike Pence, not to certify the result of the 2020 election.
Pence believed it was his duty to certify Joe Biden’s win.
Trump criticized Biden in a Twitter message on January 6, 2021, as Trump protesters were trying to break into Congress to certify the election.
Trump was later charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights in connection with an alleged pressure campaign on state officials to reverse the 2020 election results.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him and repeatedly said he is the victim of a political witch hunt.
On July 1, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Trump has immunity from prosecution for his communications with Pence while Pence was acting as vice president.
It also ruled that Trump has “presumptive immunity” from his attempts to stop Pence from certifying the election while Pence was acting as Senate president.
