166 



CONGRESS. (COUNTING THE ELECTORAL VOTES.) 



the two Houses have voted, they shall immediately 

 again meet, and the presiding officer shall then an- 

 nounce the decision of the question submitted. No 

 votes or papers from any other State shall be acted 

 upon until the objections previously made to the votes 

 or papers from any State shall have been finally dis- 

 posed of. 



SEC. 5. That while the two Houses shall be in 

 meeting as provided in this act the President of the 

 Senate shall have power to preserve order : and no 

 debate shall be allowed and no question shall be put 

 by the presiding officer except to either House on a 

 motion to withdraw. 



SEC. 6. That when the two Houses separate to de- 

 cide upon an objection that may have been made to 

 the counting of any electoral vote or votes from any 

 State, or other question arising in the matter, each 

 Senator and Kepresentative may speak to such objec- 

 tion or question five minutes, and not more than once ; 

 but after such debate shall have lasted two hours it 

 shall be the duty of the presiding officer of each 

 House to put the main question without further de- 

 bate. 



SEC. 7. That at such joint meeting of the two Houses, 

 seats shall be provided as follows : For the President 

 of the Senate, the Speaker's chair ; for the Speaker, 

 immediately upon his left ; the Senators, in the body 

 of the hall upon the right of the presiding officer ; for 

 the Kepresentatives, in the body of the nail not pro- 

 vided for the Senators ; for the tellers, Secretary of 

 the Senate, and Clerk of the House of Kepresentatives, 

 at the Clerk's desk ; for the other officers of the two 

 Houses, in front of the Clerk's desk and upon each 

 side of the Speaker's platform. Such joint meeting 

 shall not be dissolved until the count of electoral 

 votes shall be completed and the result declared ; and 

 no recess shall be taken unless a question shall have 

 arisen in regard to counting any such votes, or other- 

 wise under this act, in which case it shall be compe- 

 tent for either House, acting separately, in the man- 

 ner hereinbefore provided, to direct a recess of such 

 House not beyond the next calendar day, Sunday ex- 

 cepted, at the hour of ten o'clock hi the forenoon. But 

 if the counting of the electoral votes and the declara- 

 tion of the result shall not have been completed be- 

 fore the fifth calendar day next after such first meet- 

 ing of the two Houses, no further or other recess shall 

 be taken by either House. 



In explanation of the measure, Mr. Eden, of 

 Illinois, said: 



"The object of the bill of the Senate is to 

 fix certain rules by which the two Houses shall 

 be governed in counting the electoral vote. 



" In case of but one return from a State, the 

 Senate bill allows the vote to be rejected by 

 the affirmative vote of both Houses. 



" When there is more than one return from 

 a State, and a tribunal of the State, according 

 to section 2 of the bill, has determined who 

 are the lawfully appointed electors of the State, 

 the votes of such electors are to be counted 

 without question. 



" If a question arises as to which of two or 

 more of such State authorities, acting under 

 section 2 of the bill, is the lawful tribunal of 

 the State, then the vote of such electors only 

 shall be counted as the two Houses, acting 

 separately, shall concurrently decide is sup- 

 ported by the decision of such State so acting 

 under its laws. 



" In case of more than one return from a 

 State, if no determination has been made by a 

 tribunal thereof as to which is the lawful re- 

 turn, then those votes only shall be counted 



which the two Houses, acting separately, shall 

 concurrently decide to be the lawful votes of 

 the legally appointed electors of the State. 



" It will thus be seen that under the Senate 

 bill there are three contingencies in which the 

 two Houses in counting the electoral vote may 

 refuse to count the vote of the State. 



"The House committee has undertaken to 

 remedy this defect by a limitation of the power 

 of the two Houses to reject the vote of a State. 

 We propose to amend the bill so that where 

 there is but one return, or paper purporting to 

 be a return, from a State, and the vote was 

 regularly given, and the credentials of the 

 electors are in due form and in accordance with 

 the laws of the State, and properly certified by 

 the executive authority thereof, the vote shall 

 be counted. 



" We propose a further amendment, that 

 where there are two or more returns from a 

 State, and no tribunal thereof has determined 

 who are the legally appointed electors from 

 the State, the votes regularly given by electors, 

 whose appointment shall have been duly cer- 

 tified under the seal of the State by the Execu- 

 tive thereof, in accordance with the laws of 

 the State, shall be counted, unless the two 

 Houses, acting separately, shall concurrently 

 decide such votes not to be the lawful votes of 

 the legally appointed electors of such State. 

 If the amendments proposed by the House 

 committee be agreed to, there will be but one 

 contingency in which the vote of a State may 

 be rejected. That contingency is the presen- 

 tation of double returns from a State by op- 

 posing State authorities, disagreeing in the de- 

 termination as to which set of electors are the 

 legally appointed electors of the State. In that 

 case no electoral vote of the State will be 

 counted unless the two Houses, acting sepa- 

 rately, shall concurrently decide that one of 

 the opposing sets of electors are the duly ap- 

 pointed electors of the State. 



"In case of more than one return from a 

 State, where no State tribunal has determined 

 the question as to which is the true and lawful 

 return, the vote of those electors regularly 

 given who bear the official certificate of the 

 Governor under the seal of the State, showing 

 that they were duly appointed in pursuance of 

 the laws of the State, under our amendment 

 are to be counted unless rejected by the con- 

 current vote of both Houses, acting separately. 

 I am of opinion that with the adoption of the 

 proposed amendments the Senate bill may be 

 safely passed, and that no question will re- 

 main to be determined relative to the count of 

 the electoral vote, when the two Houses meet 

 for that purpose, that can not be rightfully de- 

 termined in accordance with the terms of this 

 bill. Under the bill as thus amended the States 

 are left not only to appoint the electors, but to 

 determine all disputes relative to their appoint- 

 ment. 



" If no dispute arises relative to the appoint- 

 ment, and no contesting electors appear to do- 



