On
January 6,
2001, a joint-session of
Congress met to certify the
electoral vote. Twenty members of the
House of Representatives, most of them Democratic members of the
Congressional Black Caucus, rose one-by-one to file objections to the electoral votes of Florida. However, according to an
1877 law, any such objection had to be sponsored by both a representative and a
senator. No senator would co-sponsor these objections, deferring to the Supreme Court's ruling. Therefore, Gore, who was presiding in his capacity as
President of the Senate , ruled each of these objections out of order. Bush subsequently became the President-elect