The precedent is Humphrey, who didn’t preside over the counting of his losing votes.
I wonder how often a VP has lost the election, and then bailed on the counting? Gore showed up, Humphrey didn’t. Nixon somewhat famously did (and accepted Hawaii’s votes for Kennedy which were in actual dispute). Too lazy to look for others.
Ah, I see what you mean. I forgot to check and see who is after Vermont and what they add up to – I was thinking just that most of the “disputed” states come before Vermont.
Since the Electoral Count Act was adopted in 1876, the only incumbent Vice Presidents who have lost a Presidential election were Gore, Humphrey, Nixon. There have been a couple more incumbent VPs who sought but failed to obtain their party’s nomination for President, but damned if I’m going to do the research to determine whether Charles W. Fairbanks chaired the joint session to confirm William Taft.
I’ve seen, but have no handy cite, that they did prepare the absentee ballots that they’ve received so far, and they only have to drop them in the machines to be counted.
Honestly, I don’t know - it depends on the rules Georgia has for how late ballots can come in. It might be by a certain time today, or postmarked by today, or something else entirely.
Also, it just takes a long time to count all the votes; so if it’s close, then we’ll just have to wait. If it’s not terribly close, then we may know late tonight or early tomorrow.
Nearly half the votes are in, and we’re ahead. That’s a good sample, right? Let me tell you, that’s a good sample. That’s a perfect sample. We won, believe me. No point in continuing this. They just want to continue it, they want to count more ballots, because they think they can still win. We need to stop this right now. We need to stop it. It’s a disgrace, what they’re doing, counting more votes. It’s a disgrace, let me tell you.
There were also Veeps, like Pence, who were defeated in their attempt at a second term as Veep and would have been the presiding officer recording their defeat: Charles Curtis (1932 election), Walter Mondale (1980), and Dan Quayle (1992).
There were also those who got dumped from the ticket and presided over their successor’s election as Veep: Thomas Hendricks (1888), Levi P. Morton (1892), John Nance Garner (1940), Henry Wallace (1944), and Nelson Rockefeller (1976).
Taking the Senate completes the Democratic sweep. This wasn’t the huge tsunami I was hoping for, but if 2 months ago you had told me we’d get all three prizes, though the House and Senate margin would be razor thin, I would have been ecstatic and taken it in a heartbeat.