Thread by @vermontgmg

THREAD: Knowing this year’s election victor may take longer than Americans expect—and so it's worth offering a “Schoolhouse Rocks” education in the process tomorrow and thereafter. Let me explain just how tightly proscribed the process is: politico.com/news/magazine/…

1) First, it's *fine* and normal for vote-counting to take days or weeks. We're used to unofficial tallies by the news media yielding a projected winner by early Wednesday, the official system is slower and tightly guided by state laws, federal laws, and the Constitution itself.

2) Those official night-of tallies are updated, checked, and double-checked before local officials report election results to their state's designated election official—usually the secretary of state, governor, or lt. governor—who certifies election results.

3) That process can stretch without problem until December 8th, the so-called “safe harbor” date of 3 US Code § 5, whereby disputes have to be resolved six days ahead of the electoral college vote. Don't fret if it takes a while. The system allows that. law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/3/5

4) Certificates with the names of the chosen state electors are then under 3 US Code § 6 communicated to the US Archivist “by registered mail under the seal of the State.”  law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/3/…

5) Then on December 14th, as dictated by 3 US Code § 7, the electors meet on “the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December” to officially elect a new president and vice president. law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/3/7

6) Meeting in their respective state capitals, the electors will each follow 3 US Code § 9 and 3 US Code § 10 and sign and seal “six certificates of all the votes” for president and vice president. law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/3/9

7) Those certificates are—according to 3 US Code § 11— delivered or sent by registered mail to the Senate President (aka @VP), the state secretaries of state, the US Archivist, and a local judge. (3 US § 14 says any messenger who fails to deliver the certificates is fined $1k.)

8) The electors' votes and choice is then reported to the new 117th Congress, who according to the 20th Amendment will begin its term “at noon on the 3d day of January.”

9) According to 3 US Code § 15, “on the sixth day of January… 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” to certify the official election results.

10) Then the official "president-elect" will, as dictated by the 20th Amendment, assume office beginning “at noon on the 20th day of January.”

If the election gets complicated this year, controversies may unfold around these individual events. It’s helpful to understand what threats the US actually faces, what dates matters, and what might alter the outcome of the election. Read this for more: politico.com/news/magazine/…