Students at Eagle River Secondary and Salmon Arm Secondary cast their votes in a mock provincial election on May 13 for Student Vote BC 2013.
Eagle River students would have elected Liberal candidate Greg Kyllo in this riding while SAS students would have elected NDP candidate Steve Gunner.
At SAS, Gunner took 32 per cent of the votes followed by Chris George with 31 per cent, Greg Kyllo with 19 per cent, Tom Birch with 14 per cent and Johanna Zalcik with four per cent.
A total of 837 students cast ballots and 47 were spoiled, with around an 80 per cent voter turnout.
Graham Gomme’s Civics 11 class and Celia Dyer’s Social Studies 10 class ran the election, which was open to Grades 9 to 12.
“It’s mainly (about) the process, it’s the idea of voting,” Gomme said. “It’s the idea of thinking of who you want to vote for, so that students make an educated vote. That’s the main purpose. We participate every time there’s an election. I think it’s quite beneficial.”
At ERS, Kyllo took 34 per cent of the votes followed by Tom Birch and Steve Gunner with 24 per cent each, Chris George with 10 per cent and Johanna Zalcik with zero. There was a 76 per cent voter turn out and two spoiled ballots. Voting was only open to Grade 11 and 12 students.
“I think Student Vote BC and the Federal student vote find that if students do it within the school there’s a better turnout at the polls. I don’t know if they’ve tracked it,” Gomme said. “If you can get them out between 18 and 30 the odds of them voting are a lot better.”
Fifteen students from Gomme’s class also worked as polling clerks for Elections BC.
