watching the vote count

Well, it's official -- the electoral votes have been counted and certified.

I find this fascinating to watch -- largely because I tend to be really into process. In an age of near instant communication, it's interesting to see the pomp and ceremony. I love the repetition:

Mr. President, the certificate of the electoral vote of the state of [State Name] seems to be regular in form and authentic. And it appears therefrom that [results].

I particularly liked it that they kept having to mention the Commonwealth (as opposed to State) of Virginia, since Tim Kaine is from that state. Er, that commonwealth.

The formalized language leaves me wondering what would happen if they went off script? Suppose Amy Klobuchar has said "Hey, Joe, everything looks good with California. They're giving their votes to Hillary and Tim. But you already knew that. I mean, come on, you read the newspaper."

I do have a few additional thoughts:

• With all the formality, I was disappointed that Rhode Island was just called "The State of Rhode Island" instead of "The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations," which is its full name. See at about 22:30 into the above video.
• I'm not sure which is the best moment. Possibly near the end (at about 33:27) when Joe Biden can be hear saying "God save the Queen." 
• Another possibility? Just after the 31 minute mark, as Joe Biden is reading off the names of people who got votes for President, he gets to Faith Spotted Eagle. I mean, he had to. She got a vote from Washington, which is cited earlier. But, seriously...Faith Spotted Eagle? Am I imagining it, or is Paul Ryan stifling a smirk. 
• Regarding the protests, I kind of feel sorry for Biden. He's probably not happy about the result, but he has a job to do. And I can practically hear him thinking "let me just get this done so I can go back to saying stupid things." And then, despite the fact that he wants to just plow through, he has to deal with these interruptions. And those protests were nothing more than theatre. None of them could be entertained because, as Biden kept pointing out, an objection must be in writing and signed by both a Representative and a Senator. None of them had a Senator's signature, and so the Representatives must have known that it was pointless to stand up and object. So I can only assume that they only made their objections so they could tell their constituents that they did what they could to stop Trump. My question: Did they actually try to get a Senator to sign on?