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Summerland students choose Cannings in mock election

If last week’s provincial election had been in the hands of Summerland students, NDP candidate Richard Cannings would have been elected.

If last week’s provincial election had been in the hands of the students at Summerland Secondary School, New Democratic Party candidate Richard Cannings would have been elected.

A mock election organized by the Civics 11 class drew 254 out of the 460 students at the school.

“I hope for the sake of this project that students made an informed decision when voting. I think our election forum last month helped some students with their choice,” said Nicole Fofonoff, one of the students in the class.

Voter turnout in the mock election was 53 per cent. This is close to the voter turnout percentage in the riding of Penticton.

Cannings received 92 votes or 38 per cent of the ballots cast, while Liberal candidate Dan Ashton received 86 votes or 35 per cent support. Conservative candidate Sean Upshaw had 33 votes or 13 per cent support while Doug Maxwell of B.C. First had 25 votes or 10 per cent support.

“It will be interesting to see how our school compares to the real election,” Kassandra Planiden said after the votes were counted.

In the provincial election, close to 46 per cent of voters in the riding of Penticton voted for Ashton, while Cannings received 40 per cent support.

Upshaw received just over nine per cent support, while Maxwell had just under five per cent support.

There were 13 spoiled ballots.

“I was surprised how few spoiled ballots there were because the students seemed uninterested and not very educated about the mock election,” said Faith McDonald, one of the students in the Civics 11 class.