EXPLAINER: How Congress will count Electoral College votes

The plan to object to Bidens electors has added importance to a usually routine step in the path to inauguration and is the broadest effort to challenge a presidents win since the Civil War.The Republicans at least 13 senators and potentially more than 100 House members are citing Trumps repeated, baseless charges of widespread fraud.

Wednesday's congressional joint session to count electoral votes could drag late into the night as some Republicans plan to challenge Democrat Joe Biden's victory in at least six states. The plan to object to Biden's electors has added importance to a usually routine step in the path to inauguration and is the broadest effort to challenge a president's win since the Civil War.

The Republicans — at least 13 senators and potentially more than 100 House members — are citing Trump's repeated, baseless charges of widespread fraud. Their objections could force multiple votes in the Republican-run Senate and the Democratic-controlled House that will almost certainly fail. More than a dozen GOP senators have said they won't support the challenges and plan to vote against them. There was not widespread fraud in the election, as has been confirmed by a range of election officials and by William Barr, who stepped down as attorney general last month. Neither Trump nor any of the lawmakers promising to object to the count have presented credible evidence that would change the outcome.

Nearly all of the legal challenges put forth by Trump and his allies have been dismissed by judges. The Supreme Court, which includes three Trump-nominated justices, has also denied requests to hear a pair of cases aimed at invalidating the outcome of the election in key battleground states. The congressional meeting on Wednesday is the final step in reaffirming Biden's win, after the Electoral College officially elected him in December. The meeting is required by the Constitution and includes several distinct steps.

A look at the joint session: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN CONGRESS MEETS WEDNESDAY? Under federal law, Congress must meet on January 6 to open sealed certificates from each state that contain a record of their electoral votes. The votes are brought into the chamber in special mahogany boxes used for the occasion. Representatives of both parties in both chambers read the results out loud and do an official count. The president of the Senate, Vice President Mike Pence, presides over the session and declares the winner. The session begins at 1 pm EST.

WHAT DOES THE CONSTITUTION REQUIRE? The Constitution requires Congress to meet and count the electoral votes. If there is a tie, then the House decides the presidency, with each congressional delegation having one vote. That hasn't happened since the 1800s, and Biden's electoral win over Trump was decisive, 306-232. HOW DOES THE SESSION UNFOLD? The two chambers meet together midday to count the votes. Pence is expected to preside, but if the vice president cannot be there, there is precedent for the Senate pro tempore, or the longest-serving senator in the majority party, to lead the session. That's currently Sen. Chuck Grassley. The presiding officer opens and presents the certificates of the electoral votes in alphabetical order of the states. The appointed ''tellers'' from the House and Senate, members of both parties, then read each certificate out loud and record and count the votes. At the end, the presiding officer announces who has won the majority of votes for both president and vice president.

WHAT IF THERE'S AN OBJECTION? After a teller reads the certificate from a state, any member can stand up and object to that state's vote on any grounds. But the presiding officer will not hear the objection unless it is in writing and signed by both a member of the House and a member of the Senate. If there is such a request, then the joint session suspends and the House and Senate go into separate sessions to consider it for up to two hours. For the objection to be sustained, both chambers must agree to it by a simple majority vote. If they do not both agree, the original electoral votes are counted with no changes.

This process repeats each time there is an objection, and could go all night and into Thursday. WHO IS EXPECTED TO OBJECT? Dozens of House Republicans and a smaller group of GOP senators are expected to object to the count from at least six swing states where Trump has alleged fraud, despite the consensus of nonpartisan election officials and even Trump's former attorney general that there was none. ONCE CONGRESS COUNTS THE VOTES, WHAT'S NEXT? The joint session is the last official chance for objections, beyond court cases that have so far proven ineffective for Trump and his team.

“I think there comes a time when you have to realise that despite your best efforts you've been unsuccessful,” Cornyn said last month..