The Constitution provides that "the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and the House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted." But there was no agreement as to where authority lay for deciding disputed votes.

Never before had the presidency turned on a disputed count.

From 1864 to 1874 the "twenty-second joint rule" had been in force under which either House might reject a certificate.

The votes of Georgia in 1868 and of Louisiana in 1879 had thus been thrown out.

But the rule had not been readopted by the present Congress, and the Republicans very naturally would not listen to a proposal to readopt it now.
With the country apparently on the verge of civil war, Congress finally created by law an Electoral Commission to which were to be referred all disputes about the counting of votes and the decision of which was to be final unless both Houses concurred in rejecting it.