Cheney Failed to Call for Objections

-CITE-


3 USC Sec. 15 01/03/2007



-EXPCITE-

TITLE 3 - THE PRESIDENT

CHAPTER 1 - PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS AND VACANCIES



-HEAD-

Sec. 15. Counting electoral votes in Congress



-STATUTE-

Congress shall be in session on the sixth day of January

succeeding every meeting of the electors. The Senate and House of

Representatives shall meet in the Hall of the House of

Representatives at the hour of 1 o'clock in the afternoon on that

day, and the President of the Senate shall be their presiding

officer. Two tellers shall be previously appointed on the part of

the Senate and two on the part of the House of Representatives, to

whom shall be handed, as they are opened by the President of the

Senate, all the certificates and papers purporting to be

certificates of the electoral votes, which certificates and papers

shall be opened, presented, and acted upon in the alphabetical

order of the States, beginning with the letter A; and said tellers,

having then read the same in the presence and hearing of the two

Houses, shall make a list of the votes as they shall appear from

the said certificates; and the votes having been ascertained and

counted according to the rules in this subchapter provided, the

result of the same shall be delivered to the President of the

Senate, who shall thereupon announce the state of the vote, which

announcement shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the

persons, if any, elected President and Vice President of the United

States, and, together with a list of the votes, be entered on the

Journals of the two Houses. Upon such reading of any such

certificate or paper, the President of the Senate shall call for

objections, if any. Every objection shall be made in writing, and

shall state clearly and concisely, and without argument, the ground

thereof, and shall be signed by at least one Senator and one Member

of the House of Representatives before the same shall be received.

When all objections so made to any vote or paper from a State shall

have been received and read, the Senate shall thereupon withdraw,

and such objections shall be submitted to the Senate for its

decision; and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall, in

like manner, submit such objections to the House of Representatives

for its decision; and no electoral vote or votes from any State

which shall have been regularly given by electors whose appointment

has been lawfully certified to according to section 6 of this title

from which but one return has been received shall be rejected, but

the two Houses concurrently may reject the vote or votes when they

agree that such vote or votes have not been so regularly given by

electors whose appointment has been so certified. If more than one

return or paper purporting to be a return from a State shall have

been received by the President of the Senate, those votes, and

those only, shall be counted which shall have been regularly given

by the electors who are shown by the determination mentioned in

section 5 of this title to have been appointed, if the

determination in said section provided for shall have been made, or

by such successors or substitutes, in case of a vacancy in the

board of electors so ascertained, as have been appointed to fill

such vacancy in the mode provided by the laws of the State; but in

case there shall arise the question which of two or more of such

State authorities determining what electors have been appointed, as

mentioned in section 5 of this title, is the lawful tribunal of

such State, the votes regularly given of those electors, and those

only, of such State shall be counted whose title as electors the

two Houses, acting separately, shall concurrently decide is

supported by the decision of such State so authorized by its law;

and in such case of more than one return or paper purporting to be

a return from a State, if there shall have been no such

determination of the question in the State aforesaid, then those

votes, and those only, shall be counted which the two Houses shall

concurrently decide were cast by lawful electors appointed in

accordance with the laws of the State, unless the two Houses,

acting separately, shall concurrently decide such votes not to be

the lawful votes of the legally appointed electors of such State.

But if the two Houses shall disagree in respect of the counting of

such votes, then, and in that case, the votes of the electors whose

appointment shall have been certified by the executive of the

State, under the seal thereof, shall be counted. When the two

Houses have voted, they shall immediately again meet, and the

presiding officer shall then announce the decision of the questions

submitted. No votes or papers from any other State shall be acted

upon until the objections previously made to the votes or papers

from any State shall have been finally disposed of.



-SOURCE-

(June 25, 1948, ch. 644, 62 Stat. 675.)