Not only would each certificate he introduced be “regular in form and authentic,” he said at the time, but they would be the ones that “the parliamentarians have advised me is the only certificate of vote from that state, and purports to be a return from the state, and that has annexed to it a certificate from an authority of that state purporting to appoint or ascertain electors.”

It was a mouthful with a purpose. Pence was incorporating the specific legal language of the Electoral Count Act — the 1887 law that, along with the 12th Amendment, governs the counting of electoral votes. The law requires that any electoral votes counted by Congress be submitted by official state authorities, like governors and secretaries of state.

The Jan. 6 select committee has been keenly interested in the mystery of Pence’s added words, too. The panel’s top investigator, Tim Heaphy, earlier this year asked Short about Pence’s decision to change the language — and even played a video clip comparing Pence’s remarks to those of previous vice presidents, according to a partial transcript of Short’s testimony to the committee that was released in court filings last week.

“So, obviously, Vice President Pence in 2021 alters, amplifies, adds language to the script that had been read by Vice Presidents reaching back 20 or 30 years,” Heaphy said. “Tell us about the decision, the purposeful decision by Vice President Pence to add that language to the ascertainment script.”