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FINAL INAUGURATION COUNTDOWN
By Kyle Midura, @KyleMidura
Politics Producer
 
It’s been a week since the Associated Press made its final race call of the 2024 campaign season. And two newly elected senators have already taken their seats weeks ahead of their peers.
 
But this Congress still has work to do. Several procedural steps remain before the next Congress and president can get to work.
 
Mark your calendars.
 
Dec. 11. (Part 1) The federal deadline to certify winners
 
Our wonderful peers at AP do not have the final say on which candidates won or lost.
 
Ever since polls closed Nov. 5, local and state election officials, and in some instances, outside auditors, have been poring over ballots and results. Every state except Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island have set earlier deadlines for their final, official tallies.

Dec. 11. (Part 2) Electors are chosen
 
In capitals across the country, slates of electors representing the Electoral College votes of each state and Washington, D.C., will be certified. There are 538 of them, one for each voting member of Congress and three for D.C. U.S. territories do not get votes. This step must be done six days before the next major deadline.
 
Dec. 17. The Electoral College meets
 
President-elect Donald Trump won 312 Electoral College votes in this year’s election, exceeding the 270 needed to win the presidency. This year they’ll be cast on Dec. 17 when each state’s electors meet.  

Most electors are required to vote in line with the popular vote tally in their state. About a dozen states have no such requirements and no laws governing “faithless electors,” those who cast a vote for someone other than their state’s popular vote winner. Only 90 such presidential votes have ever been cast. (Most of these were because of the nominee’s death and none have ever changed the outcome of a presidential election.)
 
The 2020 campaign of then-President Donald Trump tried to circumvent that year’s results by appointing its own slate of fake electors. The bipartisan Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 clarified which electors are “real,” along with some other changes we’ll get to a bit later in this rundown. Suffice to say, Trump’s election is assured.
 
Dec. 20. The annual holiday budget spectacular
 
Not everything at this time of year is about next year. 
 
Congress is still ironing out its military spending plan. And the federal government will shut down if there’s no new spending law or stopgap bill in place by Dec. 20. 
 
You can expect Congress to push right up against or just beyond the deadline because, well, Congress. Budgeting gimmicks can keep most government functions operating for about a month without a new deal in place. 
 
While the House Freedom Caucus doesn’t like stopgaps, few Republicans will want to start their new majority in a shutdown. Democrats may be able to extract some concessions before they lose the Senate and White House in the New Year. And being home for the holidays tends to be one of the few incentives capable of getting Congress to strike a bipartisan deal. 
 
Expect a deal to get done in the same way some of us start shopping — as close as possible to the holiday.
 
Dec. 25. Santa (and the U.S. Postal Service) physically deliver the electoral results 
 
After the Electoral College votes on Dec. 17, each state has to certify its votes to Congress. The president of the Senate and the national archivist must receive these votes no later than the fourth Wednesday in December, as laid out here.
 
No word on whether Santa will hand-deliver the certificates since he’ll be out for other deliveries that night.
 
Jan. 3. Swearing in the 119th Congress
 
The new Congress gets sworn in.
 
The first order of business in the House after members take the oath: picking a speaker, among other leaders, and adopting its rules.
 
House Speaker Mike Johnson appears well-positioned to hold onto the gavel. (Though that could change if there’s late-December budget drama with the House Freedom Caucus.)
 
The to-do list for the Senate is similar. But the incoming Republican majority has already tapped Sen. John Thune of South Dakota as its new majority leader. While Sen. Mitch McConnell is stepping away from leadership, he’s not stepping away from Congress. If this sounds familiar: House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi ran for and won re-election to another term last month after stepping away from party leadership.
 
Republican majorities in both chambers are expected to immediately begin work on passing President-elect Trump’s agenda, even as Biden remains president for another two-and-a-half weeks.
 
Jan. 6. Congress convenes to count votes
 
Ticking through one state at a time, Vice President Kamala Harris will announce the results of each state’s Electoral College votes.
 
The 2022 Electoral Count Reform Act we referenced earlier also clarified that the vice president’s role in this process is “ministerial.” In other words, she has no power to accept, reject or rule on any disputes over electors.
 
Objecting to electors, as a majority of House Republicans and some senators did in 2020, was novel not in practice but in its scope. Democrats raised objections to slates of electors in 2001, 2005 and 2017. This year, it will be harder for any objection to be heard. Previously, only a single member from both chambers needed to register their concern to force a vote. Now, reforms in the Electoral Count Reform Act have raised the requirement for objections: 20 percent of both chambers is needed before an objection to a state’s electoral slate is considered.
 
Also, expect the security presence on Capitol Hill to be dramatically increased compared to four years ago, when a violent and deadly riot interrupted the certification of votes.
 
Jan. 20. Move-in date at 1600 Pennsylvania
 
Donald J. Trump will raise his hand and repeat the oath of office. In so doing, he’ll become only the second U.S. president to serve non-consecutive terms and the oldest president to ever take the oath.

The nation will watch to see if he can fulfill the promises he made for Day 1, Week 1 and his first 100 days back in office.