A guide to verifying the outcome of a presidential election.

On Monday, the House and Senate will convene for a Joint Session of Congress to validate the 2024 presidential election outcomes.

The 2020 presidential election certification process turned the typically uneventful Electoral College certification into a national security event due to the Capitol riot and ensuing controversy. In response, Congressional security officials have erected 10-foot-high fencing around the outer perimeter of the Capitol complex, extending beyond the usual "Capitol Square" to include the Russell Senate Park and other areas.

The irony in the American political system is that the person who loses the presidential race often presides over their own defeat. In this instance, Vice President Harris will continue as President of the Senate until January 20.

In 1960, Vice President Richard Nixon certified President John F. Kennedy's victory after losing the election. Similarly, in 2001, Vice President Al Gore certified President George W. Bush's victory after losing the election.

According to the 12th Amendment to the Constitution, the President of the Senate will count the election results in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives.

The House and Senate convene together in the House chamber, with the Speaker of the House presiding alongside the Vice President of the Senate.

But Harris kind of runs the show.

The Joint Session of Congress will take place with the House and Senate meeting to receive the President for State of the Union and certify the election outcome. Since the House elected a Speaker on Friday afternoon, the Joint Session can now convene. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will preside over the session from the dais in the House chamber.

Things are different compared to this exercise four years ago.

The Electoral College's certification process was forever altered on January 6, 2021, after the Capitol riot.

Early Monday morning, the Capitol Police restricted vehicular traffic on streets surrounding the Capitol complex. Only members, staff, and visitors with official business are allowed access to the House and Senate Office Buildings. Pedestrians will have limited access to the Capitol grounds through only a few designated entry points. Official Capitol tours have been suspended.

On Monday at 1 p.m. EST, Johnson will call the House to order. Bill McFarland, the House Sergeant at Arms, will announce the arrival of Harris and senators as they enter the House chamber. Members of the House Administration Committee and Senate Rules Committee will assist in the tabulation of the electoral votes as "tellers."

Harris will declare that the House and Senate are meeting in a Joint Session and announce that the election certificates are valid and properly formatted.

One of the tellers in Alabama is likely to read the following.

"The electoral vote certificate of Alabama appears to be legitimate and in proper form. As a result, it seems that Donald John Trump of Florida received nine votes for president and JD Vance of Ohio received nine votes for vice president."

And on we go.

In late 2022, the 1887 "Electoral Count Act" was amended by lawmakers. The original act was enacted following the disputed election of 1876, when various states submitted competing slates of electors to Congress. The legislators found that there was no standard procedure for tallying the Electoral College votes.

Although Democrat Samuel Tilden received the most votes in the popular election, President Rutherford B. Hayes was ultimately elected to the White House following a commission's decision to award him 20 disputed electoral votes.

The 2022 Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act clarified the Vice President's role in the Joint Session of Congress. President-elect Trump and other loyalists leaned on then-Vice President Pence to assert himself in the process. Many demanded that he accept alternative slates of electors from the states in question. The updated law states that the Vice President's role is simply "ministerial." The new statute says the Vice President lacks the power "to determine, accept, reject, or otherwise adjudicate or resolve disputes over the proper list of electors, the validity of electors, or the votes of electors."

The new law introduced an expedited judicial appellate process for electoral vote litigation and changed the way lawmakers can challenge a state's elector slate during the Joint Session.

In 2021, Republicans planned to challenge as many as six swing states' electoral slates. However, they ultimately questioned only two.

In 2001, several members of the Congressional Black Caucus attempted to challenge Florida's slate of electors. However, they lacked a Senate co-sponsor.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., requested to question Florida's electoral votes, and Al Gore, who presided over his own loss, inquired if she had a Senate ally.

Waters replied that she did not and "did not care."

Gore's response to his loss in the presidential election was a statesmanlike proclamation that helped heal the political wounds.

"The chair will advise that rules do care," pronounced Gore.

In the House chamber, there was a bipartisan applause following his takedown of Waters.

In 2005, during the certification of the 2004 election, a question arose regarding Ohio's electoral votes. This time, Congress members Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Barbara Boxer joined forces to push for separate debates and votes on Ohio's electoral slate. However, both the House and Senate rejected their petition.

The new 2022 law has increased the difficulty of challenging state electoral certificates. Now, it requires one-fifth of all House members and one-half of all Senate members to contest what the states submit.

The 2024 election results are final and there are no plans to challenge them. There is no expectation of Congress conducting additional reviews of the Electoral College. Additionally, Capitol security officials do not anticipate any rallies or violence occurring in 2024, unlike in 2021.

In 2021, after a riot and two near fistfights on the House floor, Vice President Pence certified the electoral vote outcome just before 4 a.m. EST on January 7. This year's exercise is expected to be completed in about an hour. Vice President Harris will announce that Donald Trump won the election "for a term beginning on the 20th day of January 2025." She will then dissolve the Joint Session.

Two weeks later, at noon, U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts administers the oath of office to Donald John Trump on the West Front of the Capitol for his second term.