Nobody other than the candidates was as invested in the school board trustee election than the students of Lac la Hache Elementary School.
“We studied the election process and there’s a student vote book set, so we sort of followed some of the lessons on that and we learned about who is running in the election and we voted in class,” said Principal Kristy Davis.
The students who participated ranged from Grades 4 to 7. When it came to demonstrating the vote, they took on the role of chief election officer as well as a voter.
Even though they were paying attention to the 100 Mile House and District municipal elections, they only voted on the school board trustees because it was the only election people in Lac la Hache were eligible to vote in.
RELATED: VIDEO: 100 Mile House residents turn out to vote
The results of the student’s election are posted on the Student Vote website, where hundreds of schools post the results of their student elections.
The 100 Mile House Elementary School, Mile 108 Elementary and Peter Skene Ogden Secondary all had student elections. Going on those results, the mayor would still be Mitch Campsall, but the council would be very different, with Wally Bramsleven, Laura Laing, David Mingo and Nicole Weir having seats.
Of the 12 students who participated in the School District election, six voted for Mary Forbes, five for Robyn Angus and one ballot was rejected.
“They really enjoyed it,” said Davis. “We’re actually making a cahoot game right now with all the information they’ve learned. They’re coming up with questions about the election or results from the election or the voting process and they’re coming up with answers. Then I’m going to make an online game for us.”
RELATED: VIDEO: Mitch Campsall thanks 100 Mile House voters
One of the more common questions, according to Davis, was why there was such a low turnout for the school board trustee election. The students were interested in why people were not voting.
Davis said she and the students did talk about possible reasons, such as maybe people didn’t know about it, or the possibility that some voters couldn’t get to the polling stations for whatever reason.
The student vote is part of the school’s social studies curriculum.
“I think it’s extremely important. If they participate in the student vote I think it’s more likely they’ll vote once they’re 18,” said Davis.
