Surrey and White Rock students headed to the polls in the days leading up to the civic election, and the results were quite a bit different than the results on Oct. 20.
Dozens of Surrey Schools students took part in the 2018 Student Vote which was held Oct. 18 and 19, according to the district’s website. Civix, which runs the Student Vote, said 8,500 students from 86 schools in Surrey participated in the vote.
But, according to the district’s website, the results differed from the actual results.
The district said “a majority” of students voted for Tom Gill, the Surrey First mayoral candidate, for the mayor’s seat with 2,281 votes. That’s in contrast to the majority in Surrey that voted in Safe Surrey Coalition’s Doug McCallum.
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While Surrey also voted in seven of the eight council candidates from Safe Surrey, students voted in just two Safe Surrey candidates for council. The student vote results show the elected councillors would have been Linda Annis of Surrey First (979 votes), Roslyn Cassels of GreenVote (678), Narima Dela Cruz of Surrey First (781), Avi Dhaliwal of Integrity Now (738), Doug Elford of Safe Surrey (819), Maria Foster of People First (788), Rina Gill of Integrity Now (882) and Laurie Guerra of Safe Surrey (668).
#studentvote today at #CougarCreekElementary @Surrey_Schools #Grade6 pic.twitter.com/4VLJ80q6rW
— Jessie Sidhu (@MsJess__) October 19, 2018
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The Student Vote results also show the Surrey school board would have had a different make up as well. In the student vote, students only voted in three incumbents from Surrey First Education, while Saturday’s vote resulted in Surrey First retaining control of the school board.
Surrey students would have elected Bob Holmes of Surrey First (641 votes), Cindy Dalglish of Surrey Students Now (749), independent Lisa Alexis (916), Rina Diaz of Proudly Surrey (629), Sonia Andhi of Surrey Students Now (732), Terry Allen of Surrey First (962) and independent Laurae McNally for White Rock (71).
RELATED: Surrey First holds on to school board seats
The results from White Rock students also differed from the city’s actual results. The majority of students, according to the district, voted for White Rock Coalition’s Grant Meyer with 98 votes, while Democracy Direct’s Darryl Walker was the actual winner of Saturday.
However, White Rock elected a majority of Democracy Direct candidates to council, but students voted for a mix of councillors.
Students would have voted in Erika Johanson of Democracy Direct (50 votes), Megan Knight of White Rock Coalition (54) and independents Michael Armstrong (131), Helen Fathers (59), Zachary Johnson (44) and Jeffery Simpson (53).
Civix, which runs Student Vote, said in a news release that more than 60,000 students across the province took part in the program. Students, like eligible voters, had to vote for a mayor, councillors and school trustees.
Civix said Student Vote follows “a series of instruction and activities focused on government and elections, research into the candidates and local issues, as well as dialogue with family and friends.”
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