Watch the certification ceremony of 2008 here -- and beginning at 2:00 you may watch the same ceremony of 2001.
Objections were asked for, and received, in 2001 and were not in 2009. There is also a You Tube video of the certification process from 2005, but I cannot find it right now.
The question is not so much a matter of "tradition" as one of code.
3 U.S.C. § 15, Congress is directed to be in session on the appropriate date to count the electoral votes for President, with the President of the Senate presiding. The statute further directs that the electoral votes be counted, and then the results be presented to the President of the Senate, who shall then announce the state of the vote. The statute then provides a mechanism for objections to be registered and resolved.
I see.
What can explain Cheney’s failure to follow the law regarding the procedures?
Sorry...meant to ping you to this post.