Election day is usually the end of the contentious fight for the White House. But it could be just the beginning. With Democrats and Republicans bracing for potential legal fights over vote counting, the post-election process to locate the winner is being looked at more closely.
The more than two months of often-ignored procedural steps are established by the United States Constitution and federal law and are far more complicated than simply handing over the keys to the White House to the winner. Below are the key dates in the process and what happens each step of the way.
November 3: The first step is on Election Day. Voters in all 50 states are not technically voting for a president, but for a list of voters who are committed to supporting one of the presidential candidates in a subsequent ballot. Voters can cast their ballot on or before November 3, but voting stops when the polls close. States can then count the votes.
Late November / Early December: Each state has its own deadline to certify the election. However, if ballot disputes, litigation or other factors delay the count, missing this deadline does not imply a sanction in the presidential race. The big deadlines are yet to come.
December 8: This is known as the safe harbor deadline. That means Congress cannot challenge electors named for this date in accordance with state law. Most states want their constituents to be named before this deadline, to ensure that Congress cannot ignore them.
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December 14: This is the date voters must meet in their states and cast their votes for president. Failure to meet this deadline could mean that a state’s voters do not count in the presidential count. Any voter sitting between December 8 and this date can still vote, but could theoretically be challenged by Congress. In addition, by this date, the governor of each state must certify the presidential election and the list of voters for the state.
December 23: States are supposed to transmit their votes to Congress by this date.
January 3: Inauguration of the new Congress.
January 6: Congress counts the electoral votes. Typically, this process formally certifies a winner.
But if no candidate wins a majority of voters, the House votes to determine who becomes president. This procedure is established in the 12th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Each state delegation gets one vote and the winner of 26 state delegations becomes president. The Senate votes for the vice president.
Other disputes could also arise. Congress can reject voters who are not properly seated before the December 8 deadline. If states present competing lists of voters, as they did in the 1876 presidential election, Congress will have to determine which one to count. An 1887 law passed after that episode provides comprehensive guidance on how to do that, but it never reappears, so no one knows exactly what the procedure might be.
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January 20: At noon on this day, the Constitution says that a new presidential term begins. If Congress has not yet certified a winner of the presidential election, federal law designates a sitting president based on the elected officials in office. If there is no president or vice president whose election has been certified by Congress, for example, the Speaker of the House becomes president. If there is no speaker in office, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate becomes president.
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