Certificate of ascertainment

In the United States, a certificate of ascertainment is an official document that identifies a state's appointed electors for U.S. President and Vice President, and the final vote count for each candidate that received popular votes.

Staff from the Office of the Federal Register ensure that each certificate contains all legally required information.

[14][15] One of each of the two pairs sent to the Archivist and the secretary of state are designated for public inspection, while the others (and the chief judge's copy) are "held subject to the order of the President of the United States Senate".

[13] The Archivist must receive the certificates by the fourth Wednesday in December,[11] and may take "extraordinary measures to retrieve duplicate originals" otherwise.

[13] The Vice President, as President of the Senate, opens the certificates in alphabetical order by state during a joint session of Congress in the House chamber on January 6 and gives them to one of four "tellers" (two from the House and two from the Senate), who tally the vote while seated at the clerks' desks.