Even though they are under the voting age, more than 300,000 elementary and secondary students from throughout Ontario will have an opportunity to consider the future direction of the province and vote for the official candidates running in the 2018 provincial election.
Student Vote is an authentic learning program that enables teachers to bring democracy alive in the classroom, and empowers students to experience the voting process firsthand and practice the habits of active and engaged citizenship.
"More than 2,800 schools have registered to participate, representing all 124 electoral districts," said Taylor Gunn, President of CIVIX. "It is a privilege to work with Elections Ontario once again and be able to offer this program free to Ontario schools."
Participating schools are supplied with learning materials and election supplies to help them engage in the campaign and organize a parallel vote.
Students learn about government and democracy, and research the issues, party platforms and candidates through classroom activities, family discussion and media consumption. In the culminating activity, students take on the roles of election officials and coordinate the voting process for their peers.
Between May 31 and June 6, students will cast ballots for the candidates running in their school's electoral district. The results are tabulated by electoral district and released publicly following the close of polls on June 7.
"Student Vote provides a great opportunity for youth to familiarize themselves with the voting process at an early age. Through this program, we hope to encourage more 16- and 17-year-olds to add themselves to the Ontario Register of Future Voters," said Ontario's Chief Electoral Officer Greg Essensa.
A map of participating schools is available here: https://goo.gl/qsvSb1
BACKGROUND:
Student Vote is the flagship program of CIVIX, a national civic education charity focused on developing the habits of active and engaged citizenship among young people. CIVIX programming focuses on the themes of elections, government budgets, elected representatives and news literacy.
Elections Ontario is the non-partisan agency responsible for administering provincial elections, by-elections and referenda in Ontario.
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