High School students at the Steinbach Regional Secondary School and Green Valley School in Grunthal had a chance to cast their ballots in mock federal elections this week.

Michael Zwaagstra teaches in Grunthal and helped organize the 2019 Student Vote. He notes this is a Canada-wide initiative that is run by an organization known as CIVIX in conjunction with Elections Canada.

"They are able to vote for the local candidate and party of their choice. They receive the same ballots as in the regular election and we simulate the voting process with actual voting booths and ballot boxes and so it is an opportunity for students to experience now what voting is like so in a few years when they are able to vote, hopefully, they will carry on with that habit."

Polls set up at the SRSS

Zwaagstra says the grade 9 to 12 students were excited to participate in the mock election Wednesday afternoon which was very encouraging to see.

Meanwhile, the SRSS held its mock election Tuesday afternoon. Teacher Neal Rohne says students got to be a part of every aspect of the student vote, even participating as poll clerks and deputy returning officers. He notes being a part of this process is particularity beneficial for grade nine students.

“"The grade 9 social studies curriculum is essentially a civics course and one of the clusters in that course is governance and democracy. They are supposed to be learning about the processes of government, how democracy works, how the system of government works for them and for the people and also how voting works so it fits nicely into the curriculum."

Rohne says the mock election also has a positive effect on the whole community.

"Research shows that students that do this activity bring these ideas home and that might influence mom and dad, or aunt and uncle, or grandma and grandpa to go vote and not just voting, but to be a more informed voter which is even more important than just going out and voting."

Just like in a real election, Rohne says the weather can play a factor in voter turnout at their mock elections as well. He notes with a snow day on Friday teachers were busy preparing their students for the upcoming innovation week at the SRSS. He notes They anticipate voter turnout on Tuesday was lower than expected for that reason.

Rohne says the results of the student election cannot be released until the federal election on October 21st is over.