'Grace and humor': The vice presidents who certified their own election losses

[Judi Lynn]

Vice President Al Gore, shown in the House chamber on Jan. 6, 2001, reads the results of the joint session in which Congress counted electoral votes from the November 2000 presidential election, declaring Texas Gov. George W. Bush the next U.S. president. (LARRY DOWNING/REUTERS)

By
Gillian Brockell
Jan. 2, 2021 at 6:00 a.m. CST

Usually, it is highly scripted pomp and circumstance. Mahogany boxes containing sealed envelopes with each state’s electoral college vote are marched into a joint session of Congress. The presiding officer opens the envelopes in alphabetical order, and House and Senate “tellers” read the results aloud. It is generally so boring that few lawmakers show up.

This year, they’ll be watching with bated breath. Will the presiding officer, Vice President Pence, resist pressure from President Trump and his supporters to write a new script for the proceedings?

U.S. vice presidents, in their constitutional role as president of the Senate, have long presided over the ceremonial certification of the electoral college vote count, even when it has meant turning the reins over to the opposition (see: Richard B. Cheney, Jan. 6, 2009; Joseph R. Biden Jr., Jan. 6, 2017).

In fact, two modern vice presidents have overseen the most humbling of certifications – their own election losses.

On Jan. 6, 1961, then-Vice President Richard M. Nixon became the first in a century. Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy had beaten him narrowly; plus, many Republicans suspected voter fraud in 11 states, even filing lawsuits in two. (Judges threw both out.) So even though the result of the certification was supposed to be a foregone conclusion, some wondered whether Nixon would really go through with it.

More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/01/02/nixon-gore-pence-trump-january-6/