Monday, December 19 was a historic day for Mrs. Walczy, Miss Paglia, Wesley Kruise ‘18 and Andrew Garafalo ‘19. They witnessed government in action as Donald Trump officially received Michigan’s 16 electoral votes for President of the United States.
The day began with a tour of the Capitol building followed by lunch. The group then returned to the Capitol building to watch the official proceedings. Security was tight as each person attending the event had to show identification before entering the chamber. “When we entered for the actual vote there was a ton of security and we had to show our identification. I saw the most security surrounding the area where Governor Snyder was,” Andrew said.
As they entered, the group also witnessed freedom of speech in action. Protestors to a Trump presidency were gathered in the Capitol building chanting and making their displeased voices heard. “The protestors were very vocal and could be heard throughout the Capitol building and during the Electoral proceedings as well,” Mrs. Walczy said.
The actual vote of the Electoral College followed strict Parliamentary Procedure rules for running a meeting. A vote was held for both the President and Vice-President with a protocol being followed for each office. Electoral voters had to actually vote on paper and each vote was then counted to make it official.
In the end, the vote was certified and copied onto six separate documents. These documents will be sent to locations such as the Library of Congress and the National Archives to name a few for the purpose of preserving history.
The vote only took 45 minutes to officially name Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence as the winners of Michigan’s electoral votes for President and Vice President respectively. “It was interesting to see the process for how they cast votes. It went way faster than I thought it would,” Andrew commented.
Kruise and Garafalo were chosen to attend by their classmates. Students interested in attending each presented to the class on why they should get to attend. Each class member then cast a vote for the three that most deserved to attend.
“It was an amazing experience to witness these proceedings. I don’t think I’ll ever get to return to the Capitol to see the Electoral College vote. I was very moved by the entire event,” Mrs. Walczy said.
As reported in a previous Titan Nation article, attending this event was made possible via a contest sponsored by Michigan Council on History Education in which Mrs. Walczy and Ms. Paglia’s 3rd Hour Civics class won 3rd Place.
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