There simply are no “competing” certified electors for any state at the moment - unless one or more states grows some cajones and submits two slates before 1/6.
So, to your questions..he has no choice, per the US Code. There is only 1 slate per state to count. There are no conflicts."
I'd recommend reading the OP. This is about Pence counting votes. Right? That hasn't happened yet. Jan 4th hasn't happened yet.
The entire point here, is that the states can, lawfully and Constitutionally, send an updated slate of electors to the feds.
The point THEN becomes, does Pence ignore the original slate (i.e not count them) and go with the updated slate that the states sent? He can...and he should.
As we've seen, there is a small, but growing push to get the states to do just that. And they will never get there if everyone throws their hands in the air and says it can't be done.
Yes - that point (a state COULD send more than 1 slate of certified electors) is indeed correct..
That said, no state is going to do that barring a totally unforseen miracle.
So, 99.9999999% probability - Pence has one, and ONLY ONE, slate of certified electors to read for each state. Assuming that indeed happens, there is no 11th hour save coming.
The ONLY chance is for there to be more than 1 certified slate in each of the contested states - and I simply don’t see that happening.