section_path: Constitutional roles/President of the Senate/Presiding over electoral vote counts
section_name: Presiding over electoral vote counts
paragraph_text: Presiding over electoral vote counts
  
  The Twelfth Amendment provides that the vice president, in their capacity as the president of the Senate, receives the Electoral College votes, and then, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, opens the sealed votes. The votes are then counted by Congress during a joint session, in accordance with the additional procedures prescribed by the Electoral Count Act and amended by Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act. The former specifies that the president of the Senate presides over the joint session, and the latter clarifies the solely ministerial role the president of the Senate serves in the process. The next such joint session is expected to next take place following the 2028 presidential election, on January 6, 2029 (unless Congress sets a different date by law).
  
  In this capacity, four vice presidents have been able to announce their own election to the presidency: John Adams in 1797, Thomas Jefferson in 1801, Martin Van Buren in 1837 and George H. W. Bush in 1989. Conversely, four vice presidents have needed to announce their opponent's election to the presidency: John C. Breckinridge in 1861, Richard Nixon in 1961, Al Gore in 2001, and Kamala Harris in 2025. In 1969, Vice President Hubert Humphrey would have done so as well, following his 1968 loss to Richard Nixon; however, on the date of the congressional joint session, Humphrey was in Norway attending the funeral of Trygve Lie, the first elected Secretary-General of the United Nations. The president pro tempore, Richard Russell, presided in his absence. On February 8, 1933, Vice President Charles Curtis announced the election victory of his successor, House Speaker John Nance Garner, while Garner was seated next to him on the House dais. Similarly, Walter Mondale, in 1981, Dan Quayle, in 1993, and Mike Pence, in 2021, each had to announce their successor's election victory, following their re-election losses.