WASHINGTON — The upcoming joint session of Congress on Monday, which will count the electoral votes, is expected to be much less eventful than the chaotic certification process four years ago, when a violent mob of supporters for then-President Donald Trump sought to disrupt the proceedings and overturn the election results in favor of Democrat Joe Biden.

This time, Trump is poised to return to the presidency after winning the 2024 election. The election cycle began with Biden as the Democratic nominee and culminated with Vice President Kamala Harris at the helm of the ticket. Harris will now preside over the certification of her own loss, adhering to her constitutional responsibilities, echoing the actions of Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, after the unrest that unfolded on January 6, 2021.

Typically, the congressional joint session convened every four years on January 6 is a straightforward affair, marking the final confirmation of a presidential election following the Electoral College’s official voting in December. This session is mandated by the Constitution and follows a series of established procedures.

Let’s delve into the details of what this joint session will involve:

Under federal law, Congress is required to gather on January 6 to open sealed certificates from each state that detail their electoral votes. These votes are presented in specially designated mahogany boxes during the session.

Representatives from both parties in both chambers will read the results aloud and conduct an official tally. The vice president, acting as the president of the Senate, will preside over the session and declare the winner.

The Constitution stipulates that Congress must meet to count the electoral votes. If there were to be a tie, the House of Representatives would determine the presidency, with each congressional delegation casting one vote. However, this scenario is highly unlikely to occur this year, especially given Trump’s significant electoral win over Harris, with a tally of 312-226.

What has changed since the last session?

In response to the violence of 2021 and Trump’s attempts to undermine the electoral process, Congress has implemented stricter certification rules.

A significant change is the revised Electoral Count Act, passed in 2022, which clarifies the vice president’s role. This adjustment was made after Trump pressured Pence to contest the election results, which would have exceeded Pence’s ceremonial duties. Ultimately, Pence resisted those pressures and recognized his own defeat. Harris will similarly honor her role in this process.

The updated legislation explicitly states that the vice president does not have the authority to change the results during the session on January 6.

Harris and Pence are not the first vice presidents to find themselves in the awkward position of overseeing their own electoral defeats. In 2001, Vice President Al Gore presided over the counting of the 2000 presidential election, which he narrowly lost to Republican George W. Bush, and had to dismiss several objections from fellow Democrats.

In 2017, Biden, then serving as vice president, oversaw the session that confirmed Trump’s victory and also rejected objections from House Democrats lacking Senate support.

How will the session proceed?

The presiding officer will kick off the session by presenting the electoral vote certificates in alphabetical order by state.

Designated tellers from both the House and Senate, representing both parties, will read each certificate aloud, tallying the votes as they go. At the end of the session, the presiding officer will announce the candidates who have received the majority of votes for both president and vice president.

What happens if there’s an objection?

Once a teller has read the certificate for any state, any lawmaker may rise to object to that state’s votes for various reasons. However, for the objection to be acknowledged, it must be presented in written form and signed by one-fifth of the members from each chamber.

This requirement raises the bar significantly; previously, only a single member from each chamber was needed to support an objection. The law enacted in 2022 has made objections more difficult to mount.

If any objection meets the new threshold—which is not expected this time—the joint session would pause, and the House and Senate would separate to deliberate on the matter. For the objection to be successful, both chambers must approve it by a simple majority vote. If they do not, the electoral votes will be counted as originally recorded.

In 2021, both chambers rejected challenges to the electoral votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania.

Before 2021, the last notable objection occurred in 2005, when Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio and Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, both Democrats, objected to Ohio’s electoral votes,