We began receiving our mock election materials from Voters in Training last week. Ballots are being shipped out this week, now that the candidates for each riding have been declared.
The materials, available in French or English (you can select both if you want) come all neatly organized in a binder. The Activities Directory includes reproducibles for students, and answer sheets where appropriate. The table of contents lists each activity and rates its degree of difficulty, from easy through average to complex. The type of activity is also indicated (e.g. research, reflection, discussion/debate, fun, synthesis, recap.) The classroom teacher or homeschooler can select one, several, or all the activities – or use the ideas as a jumping off point for activities of your own creation. The only really compulsory part of the mock election is to hold a vote & report its results by the deadline.
Students can discover the names of the local officials who represent them municipally, provincially & federally. Or they can explore concepts such as different types of voting, and whether voting should be mandatory. They learn where to get informed about candidates, and reflect on the characteristics of their ideal candidate. They look at the history of universal suffrage, and at the possibility of lowering our voting age from 18 to 16. There’s plenty to think about!
A second shipment contains the posters (not as large or glitzy as the ones we received from Student Vote for the federal election, but just as useful) along with privacy screens and ballot boxes. These, and the ballots, are the same as the ones that will be used on election day. The logo of the Directeur Général des Élections du Québec (DGEQ) is on the shipment, which lends a certain authenticity to the mock election. My kids got a huge thrill opening the supplies & seeing that they were getting exactly the same supplies as for the “real” election!
As with the federal mock election, when students cast their ballots they will select from the same candidates as the adults in their riding. Results will be published in the media.
It would appear that registration is still ongoing as of the time of writing, so if anyone is interested in holding a mock election in their classroom, homeschool or youth group, do check it out! Whether you are registering just your own kids, a single class or small group, or a whole school, this is an activity well worth doing.
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Tags: Electeurs en Herbe, mock elections, politics, Quebec, Voters in Training
