Huntsville High School students get busy voting at a mock election on October 16.

There will be more than one election result on October 19

Results from across the riding of Parry Sound-Muskoka’s 60 polling stations will not be the only ones announced on election night.

The result of mock elections held in high schools and elementary schools across the region will also be released Monday, in conjunction with the official results. Students have been voting in mock elections from October 13 – 16, in schools across Canada.

“It’s kind of neat to incorporate the youth vote,” said Huntsville High School teacher Anthony Asturi. He’s been encouraging students to become more involved in the electoral system for more than ten years now, by helping them conduct mock elections.

“They actually take pride in the fact that they get to participate even though it’s a mock election.” Anthony Asturi, Huntsville high school teacher

In terms of the results themselves, Asturi said students tend to be a little more idealistic and left-leaning, so the results do favour parties with those types of platforms.

“But I’ve also seen elections where it’s very clear provincially, federally and municipally that our community is favouring someone and the student vote mirrors that as well,” he said.“In the last municipal election the vote was overwhelmingly in favour of Scott (Aitchison) and the result proved it.”

Elections Canada is conducting an exciting pilot project with Asturi’s Grade 12 political science class. They’ve trained and hired 16 students to work as poll clerks and information officers on Election Day.

“It’s just an amazing opportunity on Election Day,” said Asturi. “They even made an exception. I have a Danish exchange student who is being allowed to do it, but she’s not able to be paid for it, and she still wanted to do it. It’s real life experience. There’s nothing that I can teach them that is better than what they’re going to experience for 12 hours during the process.”

HHS ballot

HHS ballot

Asturi said the students have also been invited to stay for the vote count once the polls close.

We spoke to some of the students involved with the mock election and the general consensus was that if they can get involved, so should those adults who have the ability and right to vote

“Some people’s parents, they have the right to vote but they choose not to,” said Alyssa Stapleton, adding that when students become engaged they in turn try to persuade others to do so as well. She said her own parents are surprised to see how engaged she’s become and when she turns 18 she will definitely be voting.

“One of the things that I think is really cool is that Student Vote Canada is trying to get more students to vote than their parents,” said Rachel Miller. She said if students are able to get a high turnout they’ll be able to lead by example. “It should hopefully influence people who have the right to vote,” she said.

Dillon Keay said the mock election also encourages discussion about political issues at home, which is positive for everybody.

“If students can do this, they can do this – it’s not that hard,” said Pamela Terreberry of those adults who are able to vote but choose not to do so.

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