Tag Archives: government

Our Election Declared Free & Fair!

Guest post by Greyson.

In case you didn’t know this, Canada (the place I live) has recently had a federal election. Well, my class, (Huzzahnia) has recently had an election of our own.

Our six candidates

Our six candidates

Our class now has a three  member council. These people are there to make sure we help the environment, make class life better, and make sure we get P.E. outside. The following people were elected from a slate of six candidates: Jack, Max, and Meghan. However, the big question that was asked was if the election was free and fair. And I say YES it was!

Scrutineers swear or solemnly affirm to be fair

Scrutineers swear or solemnly affirm to be fair

For starters, we had all of the required personnel to do the jobs: a returning officer, polling clerk, two scrutineers, and a chief electoral officer. They all had to swear an oath to not share the voting information and not take advantage of anyone’s disabilities.

Some problems did arise but were dealt with quickly by our Returning Officer.

Firstly, you are not allowed to have ANY signs or advertising in the polling station. Some people did try to sneak a few up and they were quickly taken down by our Returning Officer and had a thorough lecture about how that was wrong.

You cannot advertise in the polling station!

You cannot advertise in the polling station!

Someone even tried to put advertisement inside the secret voting box. Once again, it was taken out and nobody else tried to sneak any more signs in. But there was something else that somebody did. While waiting in line someone was trying to persuade people to vote for someone else by whispering to them. They were given a warning and then they stopped. Our Returning Officer did good, huh?

Secondly, everyone who was of age was able to vote no matter what. Our friend Matt, ended up breaking BOTH of his arms on the day of the election. So his “brother” Zack had to swear an oath that he would go in and mark down who Matt wanted to vote for and wouldn’t change it to what Zack wanted. Our Returning Officer also went to Matt to make sure everything was legal and all.

Secret ballot--no peeking!

Secret ballot--no peeking!

Lastly, everyone’s vote was kept secret. You didn’t put your name on the ballot so nobody knew how you voted. This was a big one in the election. And there are only three people who know the exact total of votes. And they swore an oath not to tell.

Image Credits: All pictures taken by the wonderful and smart Queen of the Universe.

Have you ever held elections in your class or school? Did you run for office? If you did, what was it like? Are you looking forward to voting when you are an adult? Let us know!