To Count The Votes

... to 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩 the votes, and, in exercising his power to count the votes, the Vice President doesn't 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 have to count them, or any portion of them he doesn't want to count, and can instead affirmatively 𝙣𝙤𝙩 count some or all of them, ... https://t.co/F6YUGEr7P0

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) January 1, 2021

 The 12th Amendment says the President of the Senate presided over the joint session of Congress to receive and accept the outcome of the electoral college proceedings. That’s a recognition of the position of the Vice President over the Speaker of the House in the Constitutional pecking order. And the ceremonial stature of the Senate over the House. But the President of the Senate is supposed to preside at all Senate proceedings, and in his/her absence, the President pro tempore presides. Same thing can happen (and has) at the joint session prescribed by the 12th Amendment.

So the argument of Gohmert, et al., fails on its face. The office of the Vice President has no power not otherwise granted the President pro tem of the Senate under the 12th Amendment. The 12th Amendment puts somebody in charge of the joint session. It doesn’t put somebody in charge of the electoral process. In so far as anyone is in charge of that, it’s the states. The only role Congress even has, barring a true conflict in the results, is a ceremonial one. They formally acknowledge the vote of the states and formally put the President in office, so he’ll understand how the power arrangement works: the people, and then their elected representatives, and through those two bodies, the POTUS.

But nothing in the Constitution gives Congress, or the President of the Senate, the authority to override the people just because some in Congress don’t like the way some states ran the election.

WATCH: GOP lawmaker cut off by CNN host for insisting voting irregularities hurt Trump https://t.co/cGbhyIaMx4

— Raw Story (@RawStory) January 1, 2021

(The argument there was states that count absentee ballots on or after Election Day, shouldn’t. Or their votes shouldn’t count. Because he doesn’t like that. I’m dead serious.)