According to Dan Allan, of CIVIX Canada, students from eight Cochrane schools are among the 70,000 provincewide participating in Student Vote.

Just exactly who the local students will favour in the municipal election will be released after the polls close Monday night.

Student Vote is becoming a mainstay of our local, provincial and federal elections. Many classes tie it in with their studies on governance and democracy and the vote itself helps bring the election process to life for students.

The mock vote is proving to be valuable, according to CIVIX. An independent evaluation commissioned by Elections Canada reports that the Student Vote program is having a significant impact among students in the key areas associated with future voting, as well as increasing the engagement of families in the election.

The schools brought in candidates to discuss their campaigns and that includes the grade 5/6 and 7 classes of École Notre-Dame Des Vallees, 132 Quigley Dr. All three mayoral candidates visited with the classes of Adele Scott and Meredith McMorran and on Oct. 12 it was Jeff Genung's chance to not only talk about his campaign but to explain what's involved in running for office.

Genung chose to speak a brief five minutes and used most of his time slot to field questions. It was a wise choice; the students were inquisitive and there were still hands up after a 20-minute session ended.

Genung is impressed with the questions he's received during these visits.

"The ones I get from the kids at school have been awesome and almost harder and more to the point than what the adults are asking," he told the students.

 The Student Vote was conducted on Oct. 12 and 13 and CIVIX is tallying the results.