{
  "id": "R41031",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "R41031",
  "active": true,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 371483,
      "date": "2010-09-28",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-06T22:14:35.829255",
      "title": "Beginning and End of the Terms of United States Senators Chosen to Fill Senate Vacancies",
      "summary": "Under the Constitution, the Rules of the Senate, statutory law, and consistent Senate practice, an individual elected to the United States Senate in a special election during a session of Congress to succeed an appointed Senator may begin his or her term of office upon receipt by the Senate of \u201ccredentials\u201d in proper form from the state, and by taking the constitutionally required oath of office in open Senate session. The appointed Senator who is being succeeded remains in office until the new \u201cSenator-elect\u201d is qualified (i.e., is sworn in and seated as a \u201cSenator\u201d by the Senate). \nIf a newly elected Senator-elect has won a special election to succeed an appointee during the time that the Congress is in sine die adjournment, and thus is not able to present credentials to the Senate and be seated, that Senator-elect is sworn in on the first day of the new session of Congress, but is considered to have begun his or her term of office on the day after the election. The appointed Senator in that case\u2014in the case of a special election during a sine die adjournment\u2014is considered to have served only until the day of election.\nThe formal Rules of the Senate require the receipt of \u201ccredentials\u201d in proper form concerning an individual presenting himself or herself for membership in the Senate before the oath of office is administered. Such \u201ccredentials\u201d are the election (or appointment) certificates signed by the governor and the secretary of state of the state from which the individual was chosen. It should be emphasized that under the Constitution, the official canvassing of votes, counting of military and other absentee ballots, tabulation and certification of vote counts, and the final certification of election results are administered and conducted under procedures established by the individual states. The actual transmittal of the proper election certificate, and the timing of certification, is thus dependent in the first instance on state laws and procedures.\nThe long-standing Rule of the Senate requiring proper certification from a state concerning the state\u2019s choice for Senator could be waived by unanimous consent, and has on some rare occasions in the past been waived for specific causes and reasons relating to the unintentional or inadvertent delay of the transmittal of credentials in proper form. While this has in the past allowed a Senator-elect to be sworn in and seated by \u201cunanimous consent or without objection\u201d prior to the time that the Senate had actually received the valid, required credentials in physical form, the modern practice is for the Senate to wait for the receipt from the proper state officials of such credentials.\nIf no special election has been held in the state to fill the remainder of the term of a Senator who has died, resigned, or otherwise left office, then the Senator who had been appointed by the governor to fill the remainder of that term serves until that term\u2019s expiration at noon on January 3 (in the year immediately following the November general election for the new six-year term). The Senator-elect chosen in the regular, general election in November may clearly not be seated (by virtue of such general election) for any remaining session of the current, immediate Congress (a so-called \u201clame duck\u201d session), since that would allow a term of more than six years, contrary to the United States Constitution. If the governor had failed to appoint a Senator for the remainder of the current term, or if the Senator appointed to fill that term resigns prior to January 3, then the governor could appoint the individual who had won the November election to fill out the remainder of the current term as well.\nThis report has been updated and will be revised as new decisions and events warrant.",
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      "topics": [
        {
          "source": "IBCList",
          "id": 3427,
          "name": "Voting and Elections"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department",
      "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc806624/",
      "id": "R41031_2010Jan20",
      "date": "2010-01-20",
      "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26",
      "title": "Beginning and End of the Terms of United States Senators Chosen to Fill Senate Vacancies",
      "summary": null,
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORT",
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  "topics": [
    "Constitutional Questions"
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}