Latest news with #Civix
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Elections board prepares to revamp R.I.'s aging campaign finance software. It just needs the money.
The State of Rhode Island debuted its first electronic campaign finance system in 2002. It's been using the same software ever since. (Photo by Janine L. Weisman/Rhode Island Current) Twenty-three years is young for a person. But for a software system, it's ancient. That's why Rhode Island election administrators are pushing to rejuvenate the technology used to collect and share information about campaign finance donations and spending. But the makeover to the Rhode Island Board of Elections' Electronic Reporting and Tracking System — colloquially referred to as 'ERTS' — requires extra money from state lawmakers already fretting over the many demands pulling at the state's purse strings. And how to store the last 23 years of reports from 1,300 candidates and committees in a way that people can still access and search remains in question. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. The span between the 2024 presidential election and the 2026 state and local races offers the largest window to upgrade software and train users. If not now, the state would have to wait till 2029. A three-year delay increases the risk of the collapse of the entire system, said Miguel Nunez, Rhode Island Board of Elections executive director. It also would mean another three years of spending — $70,000 in fiscal 2026 alone —- on an outdated system vulnerable to security threats. 'At this point, I find it a priority to try and enhance the system because it is so old at this point,' Nunez said in an interview Wednesday. 'It is essentially just being, year-to-year, maintained, with no enhancements, no improvements.' A work order submitted by the board's existing vendor, Civix, could launch the long-awaited upgrade in July and be ready in time for the 2026 state election cycle. The shift to ERTS 2.0 offers better security and a more user-friendly interface for candidates and the public, and complies with updated state reporting requirements, Nunez told the board at its May 16 meeting. The elections panel postponed a vote authorizing the contract until its June 3 meeting, to give Nunez time to make the case for the $140,000 in fiscal 2026 funding needed for the upgrades. The first-year expense includes the license and costs for Civix to provide training and troubleshooting, according to the proposed work order by the company, based outside of New Orleans. The elections panel in its fiscal 2026 funding request to the state sought $250,000 for software upgrades. But the request did not make it into Gov. Dan McKee's $14 billion spending proposal unveiled in January. Nunez on Wednesday had yet to talk to McKee or legislative leaders but said he planned to 'in the coming days.' McKee's office did not immediately respond to inquiries for comment Thursday. And the final authority on the state's annual final tax-and-spend plan, House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, remains noncommittal. 'This is just one in a continuously growing number of asks in an extremely challenging budget year,' Shekarchi, a Warwick Democrat said in an email Thursday. 'We are reviewing all the requests.' The $140,000 first-year cost to upgrade campaign finance software is nearly twice the $69,492 needed for Civix provide service on the legacy campaign finance system, according to cost estimates Nunez presented to the elections panel. Under Civix's proposal, the state would pay nearly $815,000 over five years for the upgrades and continued service. By comparison, it would cost $377,000 over the next five years to maintain the existing system, which includes a 5% increase in the year-to-year contract with Civix. 'We shouldn't be running 20-year-old systems,' Randy Jackvony, an elections board member who works in IT, said in an interview. 'I've seen other cases with other vendors where when something is way past the end-of-life, the price can jack up incredibly high because they just don't have the resources to address technical issues.' Ric Thornton, state campaign finance director, suspects Rhode Island is the lone state still using Civix's legacy system. Meanwhile, four other jurisdictions — the states of Georgia and Pennsylvania and the cities of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Aurora, Colorado, already use the upgraded software administered by Civix, Thornton said in an interview. Many of the Civix engineers who developed and know how to troubleshoot the legacy software are nearing retirement age, or have already retired, Nunez said. Civix declined to comment on its services or staff, referring questions back to the Rhode Island elections board. 'If the system goes down and no one can fix it, we might be looking at reverting to paper filings, which is in violation of state law,' Nunez told the board during its May 16 meeting. 'And it could not be conducive to efficiency and transparency.' Since 2002, Rhode Island has required candidates and committees raising or spending more than $10,000 a year, or maintaining a minimum $25,000 account balance, to report quarterly campaign finance activities electronically through its software platform. Candidates and committees not subject to the criteria often opt to use the software to submit their financial reports anyway. Just 15% of finance reports are sent in by email or pen and paper form, Nunez said. Electronic reporting could be even higher if the state's software was able to accept specialized reports. A 2012 state law passed two years after the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United v. FEC decision requires political action committees to disclose all independent donors and campaign expenses, including on advertising. But the existing ERTS system can't accept such reports, forcing roughly 75 applicable super PACs to file 200 reports each year by email or through a document upload service, Nunez said. If the system goes down and no one can fix it, we might be looking at reverting to paper filings, which is in violation of state law. – Miguel Nunez, executive director for the Rhode Island Board of Elections Another law which took effect in 2024 requires vendors awarded state contracts worth $5,000 or more to file affidavits with the elections board detailing political contributions. But the existing software offers no way to track submissions from vendors affirming they don't make any contributions — their submissions are 'simply not logged,' Nunez said. Upgrading ERTS also provides much-needed security enhancements, including multi-factor authentication, for candidates and committees that submit reports. Under the existing system, if a user forgets their password, only the state elections staff can reset it — posing potential access problems during critical reporting deadlines if the password snafu happens on a weekend and a staffer doesn't respond right away, Nunez said. The existing system also leaves the door open to hackers who could, potentially, manipulate the campaign numbers being submitted, said Ken Block, a software engineer who owns Warwick-based data mining company Simpatico Software Systems. Block, who founded the Rhode Island Moderate Party and ran unsuccessfully as an independent gubernatorial candidate in 2014, saw an urgent need for the upgrade. 'Twenty years is a pretty long time in the software world,' Block said. 'It's not unreasonable that the board would find themselves needing to go out and procure a new one.' The elections board asked Civix, its software vendor since 2002, to propose a better system instead of seeking competing proposals for new software. Nunez cited the short time window to complete the upgrade, as well as the highly specialized nature of the service, as reasons why. 'It's not a whole new purchase, it's a modest upgrade to a newer platform,' Nunez said. Jackvony wasn't bothered by the lack of a formal request for proposals. 'If you've got a good relationship with a vendor, and feel confident, that's not out of place,' Jackvony said. 'It is somewhat common in IT, at least the private sector.' Jackvony also said the price Civix quoted seemed reasonable, with hourly rates lower than those he vetted for his day job as chief information officer for Rhode Island Medical Imaging. He said his back-and-forth with the vendor on technical details of its proposal further boosted his confidence in them. 'They were incredibly responsive and detailed,' Jackvony said. One wrinkle still not totally ironed out: What happens to the last 23 years of campaign reports? Civix's proposal calls for archiving pre-2023 data as 'static read-only' PDFs — meaning not searchable or incorporated into the more modern data interface. Nunez said in an interview that the staff was working with Civix on how to make the PDFs searchable, though he acknowledged they would not be able to be aggregated with the new system data. 'That's crap,' said Block. 'I don't understand why they can't move all the data into the new system. They should be able to do that no problem.' Nunez explained it would be too time consuming and expensive to ask Civix to transfer all existing campaign finance data into the new software. However, he acknowledged he never asked the company what it could cost. John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, shared serious concerns about losing public access to historic campaign finance data under the transition to better software. 'It doesn't appear the board is focused on an important part of transparency, which is access to historic data,' he said. 'Members of the public, and especially members of the media, often need access to older data in order to make comparisons to what is happening now.' Marion continued, 'It's good the old data will be there but it remains to be seen how easy it will be to access.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
CBC
30-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Too young to vote? Not at this Nunavut school
While eligible voters were casting their ballots in the federal election on Monday, some students in Iqaluit also cast a ballot. As part of a unit on civics, Grade 5 students at Nakasuk School participated in the Canada-wide Student Vote program, which is run by a charity called Civix, in partnership with Elections Canada. Nakasuk School was one of 12 schools in Nunavut and two in Nunavik that participated in the program, which saw students learn about the parties and their platforms as well as the electoral process. Results of the Civix Student Vote and the 2025 federal election 7 hours ago Duration 3:29 Who won the Student Vote 2025? How do those results compare to the adult vote? CBC Kids News contributor Matthew Hines breaks it down. But first, check out how the Student Vote happens. We visited Central Technical School in Toronto, Ontario, on the day its students voted. One of the Nakasuk School students who voted was Brea Killulark. "I've always really wanted to do it because I saw my parents doing it," she said. "I really thought it looked fun." That response allows for students to hold their parents accountable, according to Cathy Welsh, the teacher who organized Nakasuk School's vote. She says parents have told her their children come home with questions about the process. "They often say, 'I asked my mom, did they vote?'" Welsh said of her students. "It increases the discussion and the awareness about the election and we get more people talking about it in great ways." Another goal of the program is to show that voting is not scary or complicated, says Welsh. She says this will create lifelong voters and students can learn that democracy is something they can participate in. "If we make it exciting and teach them about it [when they're] young, they will continue doing it forever," Welsh added. One of Civix's goals is to make voting a habit. "If you don't vote when you're young, if you don't vote when you turn 18, there are good chances that you're never going to vote," said Dana Cotnareanu, director of Civix-Quebec and French programming. "Right now, voter turnout for younger people [aged] 18 to 24 is pretty low, especially when we compare it to [elders]." The numbers from Elections Canada back this up. In the 2021 federal election, 46.7 per cent of eligible voters aged 18 to 24 cast a ballot, compared to 74.9 per cent of voters aged 65 to 74. The data shows that the higher the age group, the higher percentage of ballots were cast, with the exception of voters aged 75 and up, where only 65.9 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot. "This pattern has been seen in every general election since 2004," Elections Canada's website says. Civix's post-election results say Nakasuk School's students voted to re-elect Lori Idlout of the NDP, who gained 28 of the 48 votes cast. Kilikvak Kabloona of the Liberals and James T. Arreak of the Conservatives gained 10 votes each. Registered voters in Nunavut also re-elected Idlout in Monday's vote.
![Hide Search Search CBC Kids News SEARCH CBC Kids News Hot Topics Topics Settings MODE Hot Topics Light mode Canadian Election Climate Space Canada-U.S. news Animals Celebrities Kids React Social Media Gaming Sports KID POVS KN Explains Extreme Nature Search Light mode WATCH — Here's who won the Civix Student Vote Published 2025-04-29 05:35 Matthew Hines CBC Kids News Contributor Sabrina Fabian Producer & Copy Editor More than 900,000 students voted across the country The Conservative Party of Canada won the Student Vote. Civix, the organization that runs the vote, confirmed the results on Monday evening. Pierre Poillievre 's party won a minority, taking 165 of the 343 seats in the House of Commons. The Liberals, led by Mark Carney, won 145 seats, forming the Official Opposition. Overall, 36.4 per cent of the participating students voted for the Conservatives, and 31.7 per cent voted for the Liberals. More than 900,000 students participated at 5,900 schools, from every province and territory. CBC Kids News contributor Matthew Hines visited Central Technical School in Toronto, Ontario, to see how the process works. Watch the video to see how the adult results compare to the student results. More Student Vote results The Bloc Québecois won 18 seats and 2.1 per cent of the popular, or overall, vote. The NDP (New Democratic Party) won 13 seats and 14.5 per cent of the popular vote. The Green Party won two seats and 7.5 per cent of the popular vote. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Green Party Leader Jonathan Pedneault were the only two leaders who lost their seats. The results show 'a major shift from 2021, when the Liberals and NDP dominated the Student Vote landscape,' said Lindsay Mazzucco, Civix chief executive officer and Student Vote co-founder. A student from Central Technical School in Toronto, Ontario, checks in a voter on the school's election day, April 25. (Image credit: India McAlister/CBC) How the Student Vote works Students in Grades 4 to 12 voted over the past week for their local candidate. The election is run by students, who sit at tables and check names off lists as their fellow students come to vote. The organizers hand out ballots, then voters go stand behind cardboard stands to mark their ballots. This keeps their votes private. The voters then put their ballots in the boxes, and the student organizers count the ballots and report the results to Civix. Mazzucco said the experience is meant to inspire students to vote after they turn 18. WATCH — How kids are preparing for the Civix Student Vote Students take part in the Student Vote at Bayview Middle School in North York, Ontario, on April 28. (Image credit: Lisa Fender/CBC) 'We're thrilled with the level of participation from schools and students across the country, especially given the context of a snap election,' Mazzucco said in an email to CBC Kids News. '[The results] offer a glimpse into what matters most to young Canadians and how future voters are thinking about the direction of the country.' The results could change over the next day or so as more late votes are counted. Civix said it will update the numbers Tuesday afternoon with any late results. Have more questions? Want to tell us how we're doing? Use the 'send us feedback' link below. ⬇️⬇️⬇️ TOP IMAGE CREDIT: India McAlister/CBC, Graphic design by Philip Street/CBC Send us feedback Report a typo or inaccuracy Print Story Share to Google Classroom About the Contributor Matthew Hines CBC Kids News Contributor Matthew is a Grade 10 student from Toronto, Ontario. He has a passion for photography and filmmaking, and loves to partake in a variety of sports. Was this story worth reading? More Stories You Might Like 2025-04-25 06:05 WATCH — What age should Canadians be allowed to vote? We asked kids 2025-04-25 06:05 WATCH — What age should Canadians be allowed to vote? We asked kids 2025-04-25 06:05 WATCH — What age should Canadians be allowed to vote? We asked kids 2025-04-22 16:02 I'm a teenager, and this election, I care about how expensive life is for youth 2025-04-22 16:02 I'm a teenager, and this election, I care about how expensive life is for youth 2025-04-22 16:02 I'm a teenager, and this election, I care about how expensive life is for youth 2025-04-17 18:05 WATCH — How kids are preparing for the Civix Student Vote 2025-04-17 18:05 WATCH — How kids are preparing for the Civix Student Vote 2025-04-17 18:05 WATCH — How kids are preparing for the Civix Student Vote CBC Kids News Real kids, real news Terms of Use Contact Us Accessibility About Us Feedback Form © 2025 CBC Kids News BACK TO TOP close this modal You are now leaving the CBC Kids News Website. Cancel Submit Cancel Submit close this modal](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbc.ca%2Fkidsnews%2Fimages%2FCIVIXvote_sitecard_April_2025.png&w=3840&q=100)
CBC
29-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Hide Search Search CBC Kids News SEARCH CBC Kids News Hot Topics Topics Settings MODE Hot Topics Light mode Canadian Election Climate Space Canada-U.S. news Animals Celebrities Kids React Social Media Gaming Sports KID POVS KN Explains Extreme Nature Search Light mode WATCH — Here's who won the Civix Student Vote Published 2025-04-29 05:35 Matthew Hines CBC Kids News Contributor Sabrina Fabian Producer & Copy Editor More than 900,000 students voted across the country The Conservative Party of Canada won the Student Vote. Civix, the organization that runs the vote, confirmed the results on Monday evening. Pierre Poillievre 's party won a minority, taking 165 of the 343 seats in the House of Commons. The Liberals, led by Mark Carney, won 145 seats, forming the Official Opposition. Overall, 36.4 per cent of the participating students voted for the Conservatives, and 31.7 per cent voted for the Liberals. More than 900,000 students participated at 5,900 schools, from every province and territory. CBC Kids News contributor Matthew Hines visited Central Technical School in Toronto, Ontario, to see how the process works. Watch the video to see how the adult results compare to the student results. More Student Vote results The Bloc Québecois won 18 seats and 2.1 per cent of the popular, or overall, vote. The NDP (New Democratic Party) won 13 seats and 14.5 per cent of the popular vote. The Green Party won two seats and 7.5 per cent of the popular vote. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Green Party Leader Jonathan Pedneault were the only two leaders who lost their seats. The results show 'a major shift from 2021, when the Liberals and NDP dominated the Student Vote landscape,' said Lindsay Mazzucco, Civix chief executive officer and Student Vote co-founder. A student from Central Technical School in Toronto, Ontario, checks in a voter on the school's election day, April 25. (Image credit: India McAlister/CBC) How the Student Vote works Students in Grades 4 to 12 voted over the past week for their local candidate. The election is run by students, who sit at tables and check names off lists as their fellow students come to vote. The organizers hand out ballots, then voters go stand behind cardboard stands to mark their ballots. This keeps their votes private. The voters then put their ballots in the boxes, and the student organizers count the ballots and report the results to Civix. Mazzucco said the experience is meant to inspire students to vote after they turn 18. WATCH — How kids are preparing for the Civix Student Vote Students take part in the Student Vote at Bayview Middle School in North York, Ontario, on April 28. (Image credit: Lisa Fender/CBC) 'We're thrilled with the level of participation from schools and students across the country, especially given the context of a snap election,' Mazzucco said in an email to CBC Kids News. '[The results] offer a glimpse into what matters most to young Canadians and how future voters are thinking about the direction of the country.' The results could change over the next day or so as more late votes are counted. Civix said it will update the numbers Tuesday afternoon with any late results. Have more questions? Want to tell us how we're doing? Use the 'send us feedback' link below. ⬇️⬇️⬇️ TOP IMAGE CREDIT: India McAlister/CBC, Graphic design by Philip Street/CBC Send us feedback Report a typo or inaccuracy Print Story Share to Google Classroom About the Contributor Matthew Hines CBC Kids News Contributor Matthew is a Grade 10 student from Toronto, Ontario. He has a passion for photography and filmmaking, and loves to partake in a variety of sports. Was this story worth reading? More Stories You Might Like 2025-04-25 06:05 WATCH — What age should Canadians be allowed to vote? We asked kids 2025-04-25 06:05 WATCH — What age should Canadians be allowed to vote? We asked kids 2025-04-25 06:05 WATCH — What age should Canadians be allowed to vote? We asked kids 2025-04-22 16:02 I'm a teenager, and this election, I care about how expensive life is for youth 2025-04-22 16:02 I'm a teenager, and this election, I care about how expensive life is for youth 2025-04-22 16:02 I'm a teenager, and this election, I care about how expensive life is for youth 2025-04-17 18:05 WATCH — How kids are preparing for the Civix Student Vote 2025-04-17 18:05 WATCH — How kids are preparing for the Civix Student Vote 2025-04-17 18:05 WATCH — How kids are preparing for the Civix Student Vote CBC Kids News Real kids, real news Terms of Use Contact Us Accessibility About Us Feedback Form © 2025 CBC Kids News BACK TO TOP close this modal You are now leaving the CBC Kids News Website. Cancel Submit Cancel Submit close this modal
WATCH — Here's who won the Civix Student Vote Published 2025-04-29 05:35 Matthew Hines CBC Kids News Contributor Sabrina Fabian Producer & Copy Editor More than 900,000 students voted across the country The Conservative Party of Canada won the Student Vote. Civix, the organization that runs the vote, confirmed the results on Monday evening. Pierre Poillievre 's party won a minority, taking 165 of the 343 seats in the House of Commons. The Liberals, led by Mark Carney, won 145 seats, forming the Official Opposition. Overall, 36.4 per cent of the participating students voted for the Conservatives, and 31.7 per cent voted for the Liberals. More than 900,000 students participated at 5,900 schools, from every province and territory. CBC Kids News contributor Matthew Hines visited Central Technical School in Toronto, Ontario, to see how the process works. Watch the video to see how the adult results compare to the student results. More Student Vote results The Bloc Québecois won 18 seats and 2.1 per cent of the popular, or overall, vote. The NDP (New Democratic Party) won 13 seats and 14.5 per cent of the popular vote. The Green Party won two seats and 7.5 per cent of the popular vote. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Green Party Leader Jonathan Pedneault were the only two leaders who lost their seats. The results show 'a major shift from 2021, when the Liberals and NDP dominated the Student Vote landscape,' said Lindsay Mazzucco, Civix chief executive officer and Student Vote co-founder. A student from Central Technical School in Toronto, Ontario, checks in a voter on the school's election day, April 25. (Image credit: India McAlister/CBC) How the Student Vote works Students in Grades 4 to 12 voted over the past week for their local candidate. The election is run by students, who sit at tables and check names off lists as their fellow students come to vote. The organizers hand out ballots, then voters go stand behind cardboard stands to mark their ballots. This keeps their votes private. The voters then put their ballots in the boxes, and the student organizers count the ballots and report the results to Civix. Mazzucco said the experience is meant to inspire students to vote after they turn 18. WATCH — How kids are preparing for the Civix Student Vote Students take part in the Student Vote at Bayview Middle School in North York, Ontario, on April 28. (Image credit: Lisa Fender/CBC) 'We're thrilled with the level of participation from schools and students across the country, especially given the context of a snap election,' Mazzucco said in an email to CBC Kids News. '[The results] offer a glimpse into what matters most to young Canadians and how future voters are thinking about the direction of the country.' The results could change over the next day or so as more late votes are counted. Civix said it will update the numbers Tuesday afternoon with any late results. Have more questions? Want to tell us how we're doing? Use the 'send us feedback' link below. ⬇️⬇️⬇️ TOP IMAGE CREDIT: India McAlister/CBC, Graphic design by Philip Street/CBC Send us feedback Report a typo or inaccuracy Print Story Share to Google Classroom About the Contributor Matthew Hines CBC Kids News Contributor Matthew is a Grade 10 student from Toronto, Ontario. He has a passion for photography and filmmaking, and loves to partake in a variety of sports. Was this story worth reading? More Stories You Might Like 2025-04-25 06:05 WATCH — What age should Canadians be allowed to vote? We asked kids 2025-04-25 06:05 WATCH — What age should Canadians be allowed to vote? We asked kids 2025-04-25 06:05 WATCH — What age should Canadians be allowed to vote? We asked kids 2025-04-22 16:02 I'm a teenager, and this election, I care about how expensive life is for youth 2025-04-22 16:02 I'm a teenager, and this election, I care about how expensive life is for youth 2025-04-22 16:02 I'm a teenager, and this election, I care about how expensive life is for youth 2025-04-17 18:05 WATCH — How kids are preparing for the Civix Student Vote 2025-04-17 18:05 WATCH — How kids are preparing for the Civix Student Vote 2025-04-17 18:05 WATCH — How kids are preparing for the Civix Student Vote Real kids, real news Terms of Use Contact Us Accessibility About Us Feedback Form © 2025 CBC Kids News BACK TO TOP close this modal You are now leaving the CBC Kids News Website. Cancel Submit
CBC
15-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Candidate event aims to engage P.E.I. students in democracy, even if they can't vote yet
Candidates in P.E.I.'s Malpeque riding fielded questions on important federal election issues Tuesday, even though the people they were trying to sway won't get a vote on April 28. The forum was held at East Wiltshire Intermediate School in Cornwall, and the audience was made up of around 600 students from Grades 7 to 9 — aged roughly 12 to 15. It's part of the Student Vote Canada program, which gives young people a chance to engage with politics in hopes that they'll become the voters of tomorrow. "I thought this was very, very important, especially since some of the Grade 9s will be voting in four years' time," said Grade 9 student Owen Livingston. "To be able to have a grasp on what their party's all about is really important, to see what they were talking about today," he said of the candidates. Four of the five Malpeque candidates attended the forum and answered students' questions about their parties' policies on the carbon tax, housing and tariffs. Conservative nominee Jamie Fox sent his regrets, saying he couldn't make it "due to a personal matter." The candidates who took part Tuesday told CBC News it's important to do events like this, even if the students can't vote now. They said it helps students understand who the candidates are and what they do, and gives them a glimpse inside the democratic process. Student Vote Canada is being held in 7,000 schools across the country, including 50 on P.E.I., in the lead-up to the actual general election day. After the candidate forums, students hold a vote and the results are revealed after the polls close across the country on April 28. The goal of the program is to increase voter turnout among young people in Canada down the road, when they turn 18. In the 2019 federal election, less than half of eligible voters in the 18-24 age group cast a ballot. "It's important because politicians look at these numbers and, through their policies and through their messaging, they're going to target who they know are going to come out and vote," said Dana Cotnareanu with Civix, the non-profit that runs Student Vote Canada in partnership with Elections Canada. In most cases, that means older Canadians, who turn out in much greater percentages. "It basically creates this vicious cycle where young people feel that politicians don't speak to them, don't speak to their issues," said Cotnareanu. She said the program helps to give young people confidence to talk about the election process and be less intimidated by voting when the time comes. Making better-informed decisions Grade 9 student Charlotte Campbell wanted to know each of the Malpeque candidates' plans to combat U.S.-imposed tariffs, and whether they'd support removing or lowering fares for the Confederation Bridge and Northumberland Strait ferries. She said having participated in the process Tuesday will be useful when she does reach voting age in four years. "It's definitely important to develop opinions from a young age... You can keep building on those so you know what you're doing when you do get to voting age, so you don't just pick the coolest name," she said. "It's important that we know what we're talking about so we can make informed decisions." Molly Mitchell, a Grade 8 student, thought the forum will help open up more discussions among her friend group about the issues that could impact them. "In four years, I'll be able to vote. A lot can change in four years, so I'm just hoping to see better change in the future," she said.
CBC
05-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
WATCH — Too young to vote? There are other ways to get involved
Mock elections help kids learn what voting is like Ever been told you're too young to make a difference? With the federal election campaign underway across the country, you might feel like your voice is being left out. Adults are heading to the polls on April 28. In Canada, you have to be 18 or older to vote. But did you know there are ways for you to support and learn more about issues and candidates you care about? You can still participate in meaningful ways that make an impact. Can you guess how old you have to be to join a political party? The answer might surprise you. Click play to find out. ⬇️⬇️⬇️ Ways to get involved Experts we spoke to said that even if you can't vote, it is important to be engaged in politics so that when the time comes to vote, you're prepared. That means learning lots about each party in your area, the candidates and what they believe in. Voting at 16? These teens are leading the charge to lower the voting age If you feel passionate about a particular issue or party, you can volunteer to help go door-to-door to talk to voters about it, or put up signs. You can even join the party as a member if you're 14 or older. If you want to get involved in the process behind the scenes, you can work for Elections Canada. Teens 16 and up can apply to work at the polls by doing things like preparing the polling station, greeting electors and even counting ballots. Mock vote in your school During the federal election, thousands of students participate in mock student elections. An organization called Civix works with Elections Canada to run Student Vote Canada. The votes don't actually count toward the federal election results, but the process works a lot like a real election. That helps kids learn what to expect when they cast a real ballot some day. So far this year, 5,703 schools have signed up. CBC Kids News will be visiting some participating schools and will report on the results of the student vote on April 29. We want to hear from you
