What to expect when Congress meets to certify Biden’s victory

US Congress meets on 6 January to certify Joe Biden’s election victory – here’s what to expect.

A joint session of the US Congress meets at 1pm on Wednesday formally to count the votes cast by the electoral college – 306 for Biden, 232 for Donald Trump – in the last step of the process for certification of the new president.

Under the Electoral Count Act of 1887, members of the House of Representatives and the Senate meet in the Capitol. Mike Pence will preside in his role as president of the senate.

The vice-president opens certificates of the electoral votes delivered from each state – whose electors met to cast their ballots on 14 December – and hand them to party “tellers” to read aloud. As they read each state’s certification, Pence will ask if there are official objections.

Any such objections are then read out, resulting in a suspension of the session and members of the two legislative houses considering them separately.

Discussion on each objection is limited to two hours. Both houses then vote on the objection, with a simple majority required to toss out that state’s votes. After all votes are counted, the vice-president declares the winner of the election.