Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday joined an exclusive club — becoming the third vice president in modern history to certify her own election defeat.
Article 12 of the U.S. Constitution charges vice presidents, in their role as president of the Senate, with overseeing the certification of the Electoral College results. That can create a tricky dynamic for the men, and now one woman, who sought the presidency and lost.
“Is it, I guess an odd quirk, you know, one of the many odd features of the constitutional system we’ve inherited,” said Matt Dallek, a historian and professor at George Washington University.
“Like so many countless issues facing the United States today, these things were not very much at the center of the founder's attention. They were much more interested, for example, in the issue of slavery and who could vote and how would the States balance their power with the executive branch?” he added.
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On Monday, Vice President Harris posted a video on X, vowing to carry out the “sacred obligation,” which she said “distinguishes our system of government from monarch or tyranny.”
The few vice presidents in modern history who have been tasked with the humbling responsibility have sought to carry it out with grace, and even a little humor.
In 1961, when then-Vice President Richard Nixon became the first vice president in over 100 years to find himself certifying his own election loss.
According to the Washington Post, he “pumped humor, life and even a little political sense into the nearly two-centuries-old ceremonial.”
In remarks to lawmakers, Nixon said “In our campaigns, no matter how hard-fought they may be, no matter how close the election may turn out to be, those who lose accept the verdict, and support those who win.”
The mood was more contentious in 2001 when Vice President Al Gore presided over the certification of his election defeat, which required the Supreme Court’s intervention, and rejected multiple objections from Democrats.
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In the end, Gore earned a standing ovation when he said “May God bless our new president and new vice president and may God bless the United States of America.”
Only one vice president has skipped the certification of his defeat: Hubert Humphrey, who served with Lyndon B. Johnson.
Dallek says the duty, though at times uncomfortable, is important to ensuring the peaceful transfer of power.
“Instead of calling on her supporters to take to the streets, they acknowledge their defeat and move on and they contest politics, contest power through the laws, the system, the constitutional arrangements that we have,” he said.
It's also the first election certification since January 6, 2021, when Vice President Mike Pence affirmed Joe Biden’s victory over then-President Donald Trump. Pence faced calls from Trump to send the votes back to the states and the proceedings recessed for hours as rioters stormed the Capitol building, sending lawmakers into hiding.
The events of that day prompted Congress to amend the Electoral Count Act and make it clear that this responsibility of the vice president is purely ceremonial.
