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Let me tell you where Vice President Pence made his mistake.

Pence treated the January 6 joint session of Congress as an event, not a process. As an event, he would just show up; as a process, he would assert his position throughout.

Throughout American history, scholars would always talk about how the Constitutional separation of powers was a tug of war between the branches: we sometimes had a strong President and a weak Congress, and sometimes we had a strong Congress and a weak President. It came down to the personality of the people in office and the needs of the country at the time. The branches were always accusing the others as engaging in "power grabs," and would often try to preempt a branch from acting strongly by prematurely leveling this charge.

I think most people would agree that Pence exhibits a weak personality compared to the other senior office holders in government, and would shy away from being seen as a "power grabber."

Setting that aside, let's look at the so-called "ceremonial roles" in the Constitution. The author is correct that we should not expect high office officials to neuter themselves in ceremonial roles. The Framers of the Constitution would not have done that to the people who achieved the highest offices in the nation. If these roles devolved into ceremonial care-taker positions, it's because the people who held them at pivotal times were weak and not assertive people, or they chose to subordinate themselves to another branch of government.

The most ceremonial role in the Constitution is that of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who presides over the impeachment trial in the Senate. A strong Senate has, over time, cowered the Chief Justice into being a clerk of the court, reducing the meaning of what it is to preside over a court. A strong Chief Justice could easily assert traditional court roles and make the Senate act for or against the Chief Justice (see how Tom Harkin (D-IA) bullied Chief Justice William Rehnquist during the Bill Clinton trial, playing on Rehnquist's reputation for being easygoing and non-confrontational).

As an event, the Chief Justice could just show up and keep time. As a process, the Chief Justice could participate in advance of the trial, laying down his expectations on how the trial would proceed, and telling Senators what to expect from him as the presiding officer. Look at how Chief Justice John Roberts told the Senate that he would not preside over the second trial of Donald Trump.

Vice President Pence should have treated the role of presiding over the counting of the Electoral College ballots as a process, too. Instead of just showing up on January 6 and gaveling in a joint session of Congress, he should have asserted his role all along, reminding Congress of what he will do when January 6 arrives if certain things do not happen between Election Day, the day of the Electoral College vote, and the day of counting the votes in Congress.

As the steward of the entire process, Pence should have spoken out immediately after Election Day, calling out the irregularities and telling the state legislatures that they should be asserting their Title 3 Chapter 1 powers immediately, because the clock was ticking.

He should have directed the state legislatures that Title 3 Chapter 1 § 2 lets them choose electors if Election Day failed to produce a definitive result.
He should have directed the state legislatures that Title 3 Chapter 1 § 5 establishes a timeline for resolving controversies in the elections, and that the legislatures are expected to act on such controversies when their plenary powers were grabbed by a strong state executive branch.
He should have directed states that Title 3 Chapter 1 § 15 has processes to resolve conflicting slates of Electors received by Congress, and that Congress will choose the Electors they want if the states do not act first.

By the time of the joint session of Congress on January 6, Pence would have already asserted himself in his role by laying down the expectations of all the participants in the process that have a role to play prior to and on January 6. Pence did not do this.

Pence just showed up on the January 6 event to perform a ceremonial role of opening envelopes and reading votes, because he is not an assertive person and he chose not to be engaged in the process from beginning to end.

-PJ