Glasgow school kids hold mock elections to learn about Single Transferable Vote

May 2 2012 By Joe McGuire

Kids election Image 2

GLASGOW’S youths are helping make sense of the numbers ahead of tomorrow’s election.

Pupils from Middlefield School are holding their own mock vote tomorrow, and got hold of some giant digits to learn about the process.

The additional needs school have also invited their neighbouring primary, Broomhill, to come along and vote in the mock elections as part of their citizenship curriculum project.

Head teacher Cathy Gilius said: “Our young people have a variety of specific needs and they have really enjoyed learning about the importance of elections. 

“These important life skills will be used by our pupils when they leave school and it’s great that the school is working with the P6 pupils from Broomhill. 

“Everyone is looking forward to the mock elections and they are busy with last minute campaigning.”

Though their project may not determine who rules Scotland’s biggest city for the next five years, it’s an important lesson in the Single Transferable Vote System (STV).

This means that instead of putting an X next to their preferred candidate tomorrow, Glaswegians are asked to number the candidates in order of preference using 1, 2, 3 and so on.

If a voter’s first choice is eliminated their other choices are still valid in deciding what councillors are elected.

Polling stations will be open from 7am to 10pm tomorrow, visit www.glasgow.gov.uk/elections for a list of polling stations.