--- title: Watch Congress Count The 2016 Electoral Votes description: Today marks the final step in President-elect Donald Trump's path to Inauguration Day, as Congress officially counts the electoral votes. canonical: https://time.com/4625966/joe-biden-congress-2016-electoral-votes/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-06T16:11:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:15.521Z article:section: Politics og:title: Watch Congress Count The 2016 Electoral Votes og:description: The reason it takes so long for Congress to actually tally those votes goes back to 1876 og:url: https://time.com/4625966/joe-biden-congress-2016-electoral-votes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b6ed87c128d10af/6988b26386f68e6c5b6e2e70/women-politics-election.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5616 og:image:height: 3159 og:image:alt: Low Angle View Of United States Capitol Against Cloudy Sky In City og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Congress Count The 2016 Electoral Votes twitter:description: The reason it takes so long for Congress to actually tally those votes goes back to 1876 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b6ed87c128d10af/6988b26386f68e6c5b6e2e70/women-politics-election.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Congress Count The 2016 Electoral Votes > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jan 6, 2017 4:11 PM UTC  US Capitol Dome with Dramatic Clouds US Capitol Dome with Dramatic Clouds Dan Thornberg / EyeEm—Getty Images/EyeEm  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jan 6, 2017 4:11 PM UTC Friday marks the final step in President-elect [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4625664/donald-trump-barack-obama-ambassadors/)‘s path to [Inauguration Day](http://time.com/4623995/donald-trump-inauguration-protests/), as Congress will officially count the electoral votes. Trump won the 2016 presidential race with 306 electoral votes to [Hillary Clinton](http://time.com/4608555/hillary-clinton-popular-vote-final/)‘s 232\. But the reason it takes so long for Congress to actually tally those votes goes back to 1876, when major complications arose and the winner (Rutherford B. Hayes) wasn’t declared until days before the inauguration. After that, the Electoral Count Act was passed to set up a series of deadlines so states and Congress could have time to evaluate any irregularities, TIME’s Lily Rothman reports. Read more about the snafu in 1876 [here](http://time.com/4621211/congress-counts-electoral-votes/?xid=tcoshare). Vice President Joe Biden will preside over today’s joint session of Congress. 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