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U.S. Code as of:
01/3/05
Section 15. Counting electoral votes in Congress
Congress shall be in session on the sixth day of January
succeeding every meeting of the electors. 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 on that
day, and the President of the Senate shall be their presiding
officer. Two tellers shall be previously appointed on the part of
the Senate and two on the part of the House of Representatives, to
whom shall be handed, as they are opened by the President of the
Senate, all the certificates and papers purporting to be
certificates of the electoral votes, which certificates and papers
shall be opened, presented, and acted upon in the alphabetical
order of the States, beginning with the letter A; and said tellers,
having then read the same in the presence and hearing of the two
Houses, shall make a list of the votes as they shall appear from
the said certificates; and the votes having been ascertained and
counted according to the rules in this subchapter provided, the
result of the same shall be delivered to the President of the
Senate, who shall thereupon announce the state of the vote, which
announcement shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the
persons, if any, elected President and Vice President of the United
States, and, together with a list of the votes, be entered on the
Journals of the two Houses. Upon such reading of any such
certificate or paper, the President of the Senate shall call for
objections, if any. Every objection shall be made in writing, and
shall state clearly and concisely, and without argument, the ground
thereof, and shall be signed by at least one Senator and one Member
of the House of Representatives before the same shall be received.
When all objections so made to any vote or paper from a State shall
have been received and read, the Senate shall thereupon withdraw,
and such objections shall be submitted to the Senate for its
decision; and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall, in
like manner, submit such objections to the House of Representatives
for its decision; and no electoral vote or votes from any State
which shall have been regularly given by electors whose appointment
has been lawfully certified to according to section 6 of this title
from which but one return has been received shall be rejected, but
the two Houses concurrently may reject the vote or votes when they
agree that such vote or votes have not been so regularly given by
electors whose appointment has been so certified. If more than one
return or paper purporting to be a return from a State shall have
been received by the President of the Senate, those votes, and
those only, shall be counted which shall have been regularly given
by the electors who are shown by the determination mentioned in
section 5 of this title to have been appointed, if the
determination in said section provided for shall have been made, or
by such successors or substitutes, in case of a vacancy in the
board of electors so ascertained, as have been appointed to fill
such vacancy in the mode provided by the laws of the State; but in
case there shall arise the question which of two or more of such
State authorities determining what electors have been appointed, as
mentioned in section 5 of this title, is the lawful tribunal of
such State, the votes regularly given of those electors, and those
only, of such State shall be counted whose title as electors the
two Houses, acting separately, shall concurrently decide is
supported by the decision of such State so authorized by its law;
and in such case of more than one return or paper purporting to be
a return from a State, if there shall have been no such
determination of the question in the State aforesaid, then those
votes, and those only, shall be counted which the two Houses shall
concurrently decide were cast by lawful electors appointed in
accordance with the laws of the State, unless the two Houses,
acting separately, shall concurrently decide such votes not to be
the lawful votes of the legally appointed electors of such State.
But if the two Houses shall disagree in respect of the counting of
such votes, then, and in that case, the votes of the electors whose
appointment shall have been certified by the executive of the
State, under the seal thereof, shall be counted. When the two
Houses have voted, they shall immediately again meet, and the
presiding officer shall then announce the decision of the questions
submitted. No votes or papers from any other State shall be acted
upon until the objections previously made to the votes or papers
from any State shall have been finally disposed of.
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