PRINCE ALBERT— Students at Wesmor High School in Prince Albert will have an opportunity to vote on election day.
Wesmor is taking part in Student Vote mock election program and will be doing their voting on April 28, along with Canadian voters. Dean Anderson, an inclusive education coach in charge of the Student Vote at Wesmor, said he expects high participation after students voted in a mock provincial election last fall.
“We had student vote in the fall, and it went pretty well,” Anderson said. “I would say most of the students were there those couple days and participated.
The Wesmor ballots arrived on Good Friday. With students off for the Easter break, Anderson anticipates having the Student Vote on the actual election day.
"This is my first time at Wesmor running it, so I'm not sure how it's going to go,” he said. “I know it went well in the fall, but I didn't have that much to do with it.”
Wesmor vice-principal Sheri Gunville ran the previous Wesmor Student Vote. Anderson said he is looking forward to his first opportunity to run the event on Monday.
As part of the mock vote, students at Wesmor will take on the roles of election officials and co-ordinate the voting process for their peers. CIVIX, the organization that oversees the event each election, will tabulate the results by constituency and release them publicly following the close of polls.
Anderson said they will set up tables for handing out ballots, fill out ballots, and voting with secret ballot protection provided by Student Vote.
“We generally have students volunteer for those positions to help out, keep track of who's voted and stuff like that,” he explained. “Then we have the students count after lunch.”
The votes must be submitted to Student Vote by 2 p.m.
According to Student Vote, more than 7,100 schools across all 343 electoral districts from coast to coast to coast have signed up to participate, and as many as 800,000 elementary, intermediate and secondary students are expected to cast ballots for their official candidates.
Following the close of polls on election day, Student Vote results will be tabulated and publicly released, including the nationwide seat breakdown, results by electoral district, and individual school tallies.
The late arrival of ballots created a situation where students can actually vote on Election Day.
Schools participating in Prince Albert include Wesmor, St. Michael Community School, Ecole Valois, North View Adult Learning Centre, Holy Cross School, Ecole St. Anne School, King George Community School, Carlton Comprehensive High School, Prince Albert Collegiate Institute, St. John Community School, Osborne School, St. Catherine Catholic School and Red Wing School.
The voting at PACI occurred before the Easter break. Voting dates at locations other than PACI and Wesmor have not been confirmed.
