While the January 20 inauguration date is set in stone, the electoral vote count isn’t, according to a St. Louis attorney.
“Federal law gives Congress five days to complete the process so they don’t absolutely have to finish today but the inauguration is going to happen January 20th, one way or another, because you cannot postpone the inauguration by constitutional law,” Freedom Center of Missouri Director of Litigation Dave Roland said. “They might do a private inauguration.”
Roland was commenting on the riots that broke out on Jan. 6 after protestors stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. during the electoral vote count. Protestors also flooded the capitals of 17 states, including the Capitol of Kansas, according to media reports.
Sen. Josh Hawley
| file photo
“If there is no resolution within five days and electoral college votes have not been tallied or if they decide there is no majority in the electoral college and it's moved to Congress, then the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi would temporarily assume the presidency on January 20th when the president's term expires,” Roland told the St. Louis Record.
At the time Congress was recessed, Alabama's nine Electoral College votes and Alaska's three had been counted in favor of President Trump, according to media reports. None had been counted for Joseph Biden.
“Definitely some people would prefer Nancy Pelosi to Joe Biden but I have no reason to believe that Congress is not going to complete the process of tallying the electoral college votes,” Roland said. “The real question is whether the fact that all of this that’s happening changes the approach of those who were raising questions about the electoral vote.”
Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley was among the politicians who vowed to object to the certification of Biden on Jan. 6 after alleging that some states failed to follow their election laws and that technology companies interfered on behalf of Biden, according to media reports.
“This certainly indicates a deep-seated frustration with the election in November,” Roland added.
Politico reported the National Guard was called in and that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser implemented a 6 p.m. curfew through Thursday.
“What we're seeing right now is very similar to the protests that we have seen for the last six years or so following Mike Brown's death in Ferguson and then this last year, George Floyd's death,” Roland added. “When people feel like they can no longer trust the system, this is the kind of response that you get.”