250,000 future voters participating in the Ontario provincial election
TORONTO, May 30, 2022 /CNW/ - 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.
To receive information about the participating schools in your area, or to speak to student participants about their experience, please contact:
For English inquiries, Dan Allan at [email protected].
For French inquiries, Dana Cotnareanu at [email protected].
Student Vote is a program of CIVIX, a non-partisan registered Canadian charity dedicated to strengthening democracy through civic education. CIVIX programming focuses on elections, government budgets, elected representatives and digital media literacy.
CIVIX is collaborating with Elections Ontario to educate and engage high school students during the 2022 provincial election through the Student Vote program and the Ontario Register of Future Voters (ORFV).
The production of the resource materials for the 2022 Ontario provincial election and the delivery of the Student Vote Ontario program at the elementary level was made possible by the Government of Canada, Government of Ontario, education stakeholders and private foundations.
https://studentvote.ca/on2022/
https://voteetudiant.ca/on2022/
SOURCE CIVIX
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