Obama Citizenship

Joint Session for Electoral College Certification: Why No Allowance for Objections?

By Phil

This issue was first brought up to me by Mountain Publius Goat on my recent interview with Mark McGrew with further reporting from RovingPatrolBlog:

US Code Title 3,15

Counting electoral votes in congress

§ 15.   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.

No call for objections were asked. Should this mean the voting in of Obama is illegal? The skipping over the asking if any objections has never happen before.

They know. They all know and they are trying their damnedest not to let it out. [emphasis from posting]

I similarly believe the questions at the end of the quotation are legitimate. I had originally counter-pointed Goat on whether or not any objections were taken prior to the Joint Session. However, perhaps the question should be raised at the Judiciary at this point, for it would appear that the Vice President broke the law (unless someone can show where it was legal to have made this change).

-Phil

Full post as published by The Right Side of Life on January 13, 2009 (boomark / email).