Which certificates is the President of the Senate to open?
“The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate.” – Article II, Section 1, Clause 3
Why did the Founders assign the job of opening the Certificates to the President of the Senate?
The Founders didn't have to mention this matter at all, or they could have assigned the task to the Clerk of the Senate or even to the mail-room clerk. Why, instead, did they assign in to the President of the Senate?
Because they did not intend the opening of the Certificates to be a mere ministerial task. The President of the Senate is an important position in the Constitutional scheme and he is given significant power. The reason the task of opening the Certificates is assigned to the President of the Senate is as a substantive guarantee that the Certificates are genuine and were prepared in conformance with Constitutional requirements.
Suppose just as the President of the Senate is entering the Senate chamber, a stranger is taking a stack of Certificates from the President's desk and leaves a different stack. Is the the President of the Senate supposed to say, “Oh. Okay, I'll open these. I have no Constitutional function other than as a mere letter-opener.”
Pence failed in his Constitutional duty.
“Because they did not intend the opening of the Certificates to be a mere ministerial task.”
There is no scholarship, or contemporary founding writings to support that assertion.
You imagined it.
The President of the Senate is the vice president, and the only significant power he or she has is to break ties in the Senate. And open the electoral votes.
The reason the task of opening the Certificates is assigned to the President of the Senate is as a substantive guarantee that the Certificates are genuine and were prepared in conformance with Constitutional requirements.
If that is true then why doesn't the Constitution give that task the the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court? What gives the vice president the power to decide which certificates are genuine, much less whether they conform to the Constitutional requirements?
Suppose just as the President of the Senate is entering the Senate chamber, a stranger is taking a stack of Certificates from the President's desk and leaves a different stack. Is the the President of the Senate supposed to say, “Oh. Okay, I'll open these. I have no Constitutional function other than as a mere letter-opener.”
The certificates are kept in secure storage when they are delivered and are not brought in to the House Chamber until after the vice president and members of Congress are there. No chance for a switcheroo.