How to watch the vote on whether senators acquit President Donald Trump

The Senate’s impeachment trial of President Donald Trump is expected to draw to a close Wednesday as the lawmakers who made up the jury will vote on whether to acquit the US President on two articles of impeachment.

When will the vote happen?

The Senate is scheduled to vote at 4 p.m. ET , though the exact time of voting could happen a little later following procedural remarks from Chief Justice John Roberts and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Expect two rapid-fire votes — one for each article of impeachment — where all 100 senators must say out loud how they’ll vote. Each vote would typically take between 10 and 15 minutes to get throughout the names, so around 20-30 minutes total, barring no administrative delays.

LIVE UPDATES: Impeachment trial of President Trump

Senators are expected to be called on individually in alphabetical order and announce whether they find Trump guilty or not guilty for each article.

Once both votes have been completed and reported, Roberts will declare whether the Senate reached the two-thirds threshold to remove Trump. Given it seems extremely unlikely that enough senators will vote that way, Roberts would then declare the President acquitted. There will be some ceremonial steps taken to formally wrap up the trial before the Senate will adjourn for the weekend.

How can I watch the vote?

You can watch the vote live on CNN, CNN International and CNN Español. The trial will be available with no login required on:

• CNN.com
• CNN’s mobile apps for iOS and Android
• CNNgo apps on Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Chromecast and Android TV

What are they voting on?

In December, the House passed two articles of impeachment against Trump — one for abuse of power and one for obstruction of Congress — following the investigation led by the House Intelligence Committee and Judiciary Committee.

That investigation looked at Trump’s relationship to Ukraine and whether the President abused his power by leveraging hundreds of millions of dollars in security assistance as well as a White House meeting in exchange for potentially damaging information and the announcement of an investigation into Trump’s potential political rival, former President Joe Biden. Trump and his allies have repeatedly made unfounded and false claims to allege that the Bidens acted corruptly in Ukraine. The obstruction of Congress charge stems from the administration’s refusal to comply with request for documents and testimony in that investigation.

How many senators are needed to remove the President from office?

Removing a President requires 67 votes out of the 100-member body. With Republicans in control of 53 seats, it seems nearly impossible that there will be 20 GOP defectors who will side with the entire Democratic caucus needed to oust Trump, meaning he is virtually assured to remain in office.

What happens before the vote?

All week, senators have been making speeches on the Senate floor responding to the details of the impeachment trial and explaining or hinting at how they’ll vote Wednesday. The rules of the impeachment trial left the overwhelming majority of the spoken debate to the Democratic-led House impeachment managers and Trump’s defense team. These speeches this week offer senators some of their first opportunities to talk publicly about the impeachment trial in their own words and voices.

There have already been a few news-making headlines so far: Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, once seen as among the few flippable GOP lawmakers, said Monday she will vote to acquit Trump. Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who still hasn’t said how he’ll vote, said also on Monday that he wanted to give senators the option to censure Trump (which leaders of both parties flatly rejected).

Will any senators switch parties?

We don’t know. So far, no senator has publicly said that she or he will break with their party. As of Wednesday morning, Manchin as well as Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona seemed like Republicans’ best chance at picking up a Democratic vote. Democratic Sen. Doug Jones, a Democrat up for reelection in the deeply red state of Alabama, announced Wednesday morning he’ll stick with his party and vote to convict Trump on both counts.

For Democrats, Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, who’s been a frequent Trump critic and previously broke with his party to demand witnesses in the trial, is seen as the best chance for a GOP flipped vote — as the rest of possible GOP votes have said they’ll vote to acquit Trump. Romney is expected to say how he’ll vote in a floor speech around 2 p.m. before the final vote.

If Trump is acquitted, does that mean he’s still impeached?

Yes. Trump remains impeached forever, even if he’s acquitted by the Senate. Similarly, former President Bill Clinton was impeached by the House but acquitted in his Senate trial. Trump has joined Clinton and President Andrew Johnson as the only three Presidents in history who have been impeached.

Is impeachment over? What happens next?

So, yes, Wednesday’s vote brings to a close nearly five months of the impeachment inquiry and trial that sprang forth from a whistleblower’s complaint over Trump’s comments to the President of Ukraine over the summer. However, Democrats have vowed to continue investigating Trump and his administration, and that includes some unanswered questions that came up during the investigation.

A key development to watch is whether the Democratically-controlled House committees will subpoena former national security adviser John Bolton. Bolton, who never testified during the House inquiry, said last month that he’d be willing to testify in the Senate trial if subpoenaed. The Senate voted against seeking witness testimony but the House has said it’ll continue its investigations and kept the door open to calling Bolton to testify.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday that subpoenaing Bolton is “a possibility,” but House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler and House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff will have to make those decisions as to whether moving forward with the investigation after Trump’s trial “can bear any fruit.”