Who officially declares the winner of the US presidential election?

Unlike many other countries, where the president or prime minister is chosen by direct popular vote, in the United States a candidate can win the popular vote without being elected to the highest office in the land. The United States also differs from most other democracies in that it does not have an independent election commission to certify the final vote count.

So who actually confirms the winner?

Step 1: Before Election Day

American democracy has many state, local, and national elected officials and many processes for gaining power.

I've been working on election campaigns since I was 8 years old, when my dad ran for office and I went door to door asking people to vote for him. I have also worked on local, congressional, senatorial and presidential elections and now direct an academic research center on politics.

What’s striking is that every race is different, from the deadlines and filing process to certification. Here, I will focus on the presidential race.

The unusual and complicated process of certifying the presidential election in the United States involves all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Senate, the House of Representatives, the National Archives and the Office of the Federal Register. It also involves the Electoral College, a uniquely American institution that meets in 51 different locations once every four years to choose the president.

The certified results of the presidential election are preserved in perpetuity in the National Archives. UpstateNYer via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

This months-long process was designed as a compromise by the Founding Fathers, who did not believe that the American people should directly choose the president and vice president, but also did not want to give Congress the power of selection.

The Constitution states that U.S. presidential elections are held on the first Tuesday in November every four years. But the federal election process actually begins in October, when the Archivist of the United States, appointed by the president and charged with preserving the government's most important official records, sends a letter to the governor of each state.

The document outlines their responsibilities regarding the Electoral College, which is not a place but a process by which electors chosen by their party vote for their party's presidential candidate.

The Electoral College mechanism is complicated, but in short, Americans vote for electors, and electors vote for president. Then the winner is declared, right?

Read more: How is the American president elected?

Step 2: After Election Day

Not quite.

After the final count of in-person, absentee and provisional voters is completed, all 50 governors prepare their state's certificate of verification, a document listing their electors for the competing candidates.

Each state completes this process at its own pace. This year, because of all the lawsuits challenging the 2020 election results, new procedures were put in place to expedite challenges to a state verification certificate by an aggrieved candidate. Once completed, copies of the verification certificate are submitted to the U.S. Archivist.

After the governor submits the names to the recorder, the Electoral College electors from each state meet in the state capital. DCs meet in DC to formally vote for president and vice president on the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December. This year it is December 17, 2024.

In a manner that varies from state to state, voters in each state prepare six certificates of vote. One of them is sent by registered mail to the President of the United States Senate and another to the Archivist of the United States. The remaining four certificates are sent to state officials.

This fulfills the functions of the electoral colleges until the next presidential election.

Colorado voters sign their voting certificates on December 19, 2016, in Denver. Joe Amon/The Denver Post via Getty Images Step 3: Congress meets

On January 6, Congress meets to count the electoral votes and certify the winner of the election.

Since the sitting vice president is also president of the Senate, Kamala Harris will preside over this count in 2025, just as Vice President Mike Pence did in January 2021 when Joe Biden officially became president-elect. Each state, called in alphabetical order, casts its votes.

This process is normally ceremonial, as by January the media have declared the winner and usually a concession speech has been made. But officially, it's the moment of truth.

On January 6, 2021, an armed pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Biden's victory. Both houses of Congress were evacuated during the attack and five people were killed.

Lawmakers reconvened a few hours later. It is the job of the vice presidents to announce the results and ask if there are any objections. After the violent attack on the Capitol, most Senate Republicans abandoned plans to challenge Biden's 2021 victory, but six still opposed it.

The objections are not without precedent. In 2001, House Democrats attempted for 20 minutes to block Florida's hotly contested electoral votes for George W. Bush.

Both of these efforts failed because objections had to be signed by a member of both the House and Senate before being voted on by both chambers of Congress. Filing challenges have become more difficult following legislation passed in 2022. Now, 20 senators and 87 House members must support any challenge to the certification of the state's Electoral College results.

In 2021, it fell to Pence, as Senate President, to declare Biden and not Trump the next president of the United States. He fulfilled his constitutional duty despite immense pressure from Trump to overthrow democracy.

Vice President Mike Pence certifies Biden's victory on January 6, 2021, hours after armed Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.

After the Senate certifies the election results, all audit certificates and voting certificates are available for public inspection in the Office of the Federal Registrar for one year and then transferred to the National Archives for permanent record.

In other words, those who question the outcome of a US election can double-check the charts themselves.

What happens in the event of a tie?

In the extraordinary event that no candidate wins in the Electoral College, the House of Representatives meets to elect the next president. This is how John Quincy Adams became president in 1824.

Created nearly 250 years ago, this complex process forms the foundation of American democracy. Many wonder if this outdated system truly represents the will of the modern American people.

But for 2024, with a few adjustments, there remains the process that will decide the presidential race.

This article was originally published during the 2020 presidential election. It was updated on November 1, 2024.

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