ADP and SGA educate young voters on government

By RORY MOORE

Tiger Media Network

The American Democracy Project partnered with the Student Government Association to host a Voter Education Panel in Cody Commons on Wednesday. The panel consisted of Associate Professor of Management Anthony Gabel, Leadership Studies Professor Donnette Nobel, SGA President Ella Burrows and Alex Johnson, a junior political science major. 

Gabel began with a lecture about the history of government, how its functions are divided among each branch, elections, constitutional amendments, gerrymandering and divisions within political parties. 

He pointed out the issues that pertain to earmarks in legislation.

“Earmarks earned a bad name because there was a lot of money tied into it,” Gabel said. “The problem is, when you eliminate a means of horse-trading, people will harden their positions, and it becomes a win or lose situation, or win-win situation. We all talk about government waste, but we don’t talk about slack or a little excess that we need to do the greasing of those wheels of power.”

He went on to stress how the hardening of positions leads to combative tension among politicians.

“I think that’s the only problem with elected speakers,” he said. “Within each party, you have a certainly hardcore [base] on one side or another. You have a faction within the party that has a very hard care base that says this is what they really believe, and they can essentially hold back consent from that party, what they should do, and what they shouldn’t do, and that’s what you saw here with the Republicans and the changes of the Speakers of the House.”

Burrows talked about the executive branch of government, the powers granted to the president and how elections are certified through the Electoral College.

“Each state has a certain number of electors which is proportionate to their population,” she said. “On election day, states vote, and what typically happens, states’ electors vote to certify what happened in the election.”

She also pointed out how some states have differing results based on district.

“Most states use a winner-takes-all system,” Burrows said. “In Nebraska and Maine, they use what’s called a proportional system where they base the number of electors off the proportion of votes that a candidate wins. So, in Nebraska, they have five electoral votes. If one candidate gets a fifth electoral vote, they’ll get one, while the other gets the other four.”

Johnson spoke about the Senate and its essential duties in government. 

“The Senate has 100 senators compared to the 435 members of the House,” he said. “Each state gets two senators to represent each of them in the United States Senate, but the vice president is the president of the Senate. Their duties and responsibilities are kind of the same as the House in that they can propose and amend legislation.  That’s mainly the purpose of Congress.”

He went on to state its difference as a branch.

“Another power the Senate has is confirming the president’s cabinet and whether the president can appoint to a specific position,” Johnson said. “Ambassadors, cabinet members, Supreme Court justices. That’s a power that the Senate has to look at or check the other branch of government.”

Nobel, who also serves as the director of civic learning and engagement, continued Burrows’ analysis of the Electoral College.

“The Founding Fathers really baked this into the Constitution,” she said. “They did this so there would be a compromise between electing a president by Congress and electing a president by qualified citizens. There are 538 electors. Each state has or can have different rules for how they select those electors. What Article II, Section I, Clause II states is that it provides that no senator or representative or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States shall be appointed electors.”

She emphasized how each elector is responsible for carrying out the election process.

“They convene on the first Monday following the second Wednesday in December,” Nobel said. “That’s when they come together, and then they vote for the president. Then in January, at the House of Representatives, the vice president presides over the meeting and announces which candidate has been elected when they come together and certify those votes from the electors.”