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I disagree. It is ceremonial.
If the VP doesn't show up or can't the Joint Session to count the votes, the President Pro-Tempore of the Senate takes his place.
As for the having authority to return votes or reject votes - if Pence tried it, it wouldn't get very far - the remain in the Joint Session. The Dems would immediately protest, and McConnell, Pelosi and McCarthy would ask him to step down due to his refusal to preside over the proceedings, and replace him with the President Pro-Tempore, who was Chuck Grassley - in order continue with the Joint Sesion.
There wouldn't be anything Pence could do about it, because the House and Senate controls the Joint Session and the electoral votes -within the Capitol Building on Jan 6. Nancy Pelosi has more power over Congress than Pence. The Speaker of the House is elected by the House members, on the other hand, the President of the Senate is not elected by the Senate. He is not considered a member of the Senate and the Legislative Branch, but of the Executive Branch, because the POTUS picks the VP.
Pence wouldn't have gotten away with taking advantage of the loophole - SCOTUS would stop it b/c it's unConstitutional - it's unprecedented - frankly Pence doesn't possess the authority - the States wouldn't have received the votes from him. Maybe if Congress objected to the validity - they could return the votes.
However....it's possible that a future Democrat VP - could get away with it through a corrupt Congress and/or SCOTUS. And that's why Trump and Pence worked out the plan to convince Congress they had to make the language clearer, set in stone VP is minesterial only, close that loophole- prevent Kamala in particular from disrupting the counting of the votes in 2025. That IS the vital result from the ECA reform act.
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