Thread by @voxdotcom

1/ Congress starts the process of counting Electoral College votes and formally confirming Joe Biden’s win at 1 pm today.

It’s usually a mainly ceremonial task, but this year Trump has hyped up the count as a showdown effort to overturn the election.
vox.com/2021/1/6/22213…

2/ Biden's victory isn't in jeopardy: The Electoral College vote count — 306 votes for Biden, 232 for Trump — was finalized when the electors cast their votes in December.

3/ Some Republicans plan to object to certain swing state results, claiming they can’t be trusted due to allegations of fraud.

But throwing out electoral votes requires approval from both houses of Congress, something that is extremely unlikely to happen. vox.com/2021/1/6/22213…

4/ Can Vice President Mike Pence reject the electoral vote?

Pence is president of the Senate and presides over the count, but there's no legal basis giving him the power to unilaterally reject electoral votes he doesn't like.

5/ In one sense, whatever unfolds in Congress will be a lot of sound and fury that changes nothing: Biden won the 2020 election.

Yet dozens of elected Republicans coming out to support disregarding the will of voters remains unsettling for the future of US democracy.

6/6 There's been a lot of misinformation regarding what can and can't happen with Congress counting the electoral vote today.

Vox senior correspondent @awprokop explains what to expect from the vote count here: vox.com/2021/1/6/22213…