Al Gore presides over the certification of electoral votes for the 2000 presidential election.

Dec 3, 2020 7:47 AM

Saturday's (January 6, 2001) joint session of Congress was a constitutional formality to ratify the count of the electoral votes that was initially made on December 18 in every state capital.

To prevail, a candidate needs 270 electoral votes, a majority of the 538 electoral votes of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia.

Even so, the meeting attracted unusual attention because it was the final tally of votes in a presidential election that was bitterly contested for 35 days beyond the November 7 election.

Gore did not concede until December 13, a day after the U-S Supreme Court forced a halt to vote-counting in Florida.

Link to video of complete session on c-span - https://www.c-span.org/video/?161423-1/electoral-college-ballot-count

9:05 Gore starts hearing.

House Democrats, mostly blacks, offered 20 objections aimed at blocking the certification of Florida's votes.

10:40 - Peter Deutsch D-FL
29:09 - Alcee Hastings D-FL
30:15 - Carrie Meek D-FL
31:05 - Corrine Brown D-FL
32:00 - Eddie Bernice Johnson D-TX
32:50 - Elijah Cummings D-MD
33:30 - Sheila Jackson Lee D-TX
34:20 - Maxine Waters D-CA
35:30 - Barbara Lee D-CA
36:20 - Cynthia McKinney D-GA
36:55 - Patsy Mink D-HA
37:30 - Eva Clayton D-NC
40:15 - Bob Filner D-CA
43:00 - Jesse Jackson Jr D-IL

But time after time, Gore - at turns serious and with humor - turned them down because of the lack of signatures by senators.

That reflected a judgement by many Democrats that it was long past time to end the battling over the election outcome.

Under the rules, lawmakers raising objections were not even allowed to debate their claims.

Many of them tried but were quickly silenced by Gore amid grumbling from Republicans.

Gore stated - "the chair holds that no procedural question or objection, even if only involving one house of congress, is to be recognized (for debate) by the presiding officer in the joint session unless presented in writing and signed by both a representative and a senator."

When asked by Gore if the objection was signed by a Senator, Rep. Waters famously responded - ""the objection is in writing and i don't
care that it is not signed by a member of the senate".

47:10 After their objections failed, at least 16 House Democrats filed out of the chamber en masse.

Gore pumped his right fist when California's 54 votes, the biggest electoral prize, were read aloud and awarded to him.

His show of emotion drew applause from Democrats.

It was a stroke of political irony that had the vanquished Gore presiding over the session, one of the duties of the vice president.

The last vice president defeated in a presidential race to preside over Congress' counting of the electoral votes was Richard Nixon in 1961.

Under a section of the U-S Code (section 15-18 title 3) enacted in 1887, if at least one senator and one representative object, the two chambers must convene separately to deal with the objection.

In alphabetical order by state, Gore handed the electoral vote certificates for each states to one of the four lawmakers appointed to examine them and read them aloud.

About one-third of the members of the Senate and House gathered in the House chamber for the joint session, whose galleries were perhaps three-quarters full.

The black lawmakers had said they wanted to express outrage over what they consider disenfranchisement because of the halted vote recounts in Florida.

Republicans struck a conciliatory note in speeches before the Electoral College count, calling on Democrats to accept the presidential election results.

info source - http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/969b35d7548ab4e9c1b5cd7e77af166a
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It will be interesting to see if Republicans will do this at the certification of electoral votes for the 2020 election. It would be likely that their point of order objections WOULD be signed by Republican Senators and opened for debate. VP pence, presiding over the hearing as President of the Senate would allow the shit-show to proceed.

al_gore

politics

election_2000

RIP Mr. Cummings.

5 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0

I remember watching this. Watching Gore come up with new was to reject each appeal. It got cringe.

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 0

his integrity was impeccable .

5 years ago | Likes 2 Dislikes 1

The shitty thing was that EVERYONE knew the vote in Florida was corrupted because of the ballot design. There was just nothing that to do.

5 years ago | Likes 3 Dislikes 0