NEWS RELEASE
CIVIX
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Across the province, thousands of educators are using the Student Vote Ontario program to bring democracy to life in the classroom.
Student Vote is an experiential civic literacy program that provides students under the voting age with the opportunity to practice the habits of active and informed citizenship, and cast ballots for the official candidates in a parallel election.
Participating schools receive a variety of non-partisan educational materials to teach about government and the election process, and encourage research into the issues and candidates. Ballots, ballot boxes and voting screens were also provided for the coordination of Student Vote Day.
More than 2,400 schools are registered to participate in Student Vote Ontario, representing all 124 electoral districts. As many as 250,000 elementary and secondary students are expected to cast Student Vote ballots in the lead up to and on June 2.
As part of this year's Student Vote program, CIVIX and Elections Ontario are also encouraging eligible students to sign up for the Ontario Register of Future Voters. The Ontario Register of Future Voters is a provisional list of 16 and 17-year-old Canadian citizens, living in Ontario. These future voters will automatically be added to the voters list when they turn 18.
"The Ontario Register of Future Voters (ORFV) was developed to help reduce barriers to voting among youth and help prepare students to vote in their first election. By making it easier to vote, we hope to establish voting habits early on and create life-long voters," said Greg Essensa, Ontario's Chief Electoral Officer.
The Student Vote Ontario results will be tabulated and released publicly following the close of polls on June 2. The results will include the province-wide seat count and popular vote for each party, results by electoral district and individual school tallies.
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