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Scout Election

VOTE! Democracy is something that allows everyone to have their say. When a group comes together to decide something, this is democracy! Learn about the power of your vote, and how democracy is all around us!

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Plan

  • What are the different levels of government in Canada? 
  • When have you voted for something before? Think of class or your Scout Group 
  • Why is it important for people to vote? 
  • When do people vote in the real world?  
  • Can everybody vote? Who is able to vote? 
  • How will you vote for this activity? Will you create ballots? Raise your hands? Place markers in jars marked with the options? 

Do

  • In this activity, you will learn about how elections work, and will participate in your very own election. You will get to create different roles that every youth will be voted into.  These could be roles like ‘opening leader’, or roles like 'set-upper' and 'take-downer'. You could even vote on which Lair or Patrol will lead the next meeting or choose tonight’s game! 
  • Once you and the group have created enough roles, each of you will cast a vote for who you think should be in that role.  
  • You can volunteer for certain roles, and asked to be put into a specific job if you have a top choice! 
  • If you don’t want to elect (vote) people into roles, what else could you vote on? What activities to do at camp? What adventures you will do next cycle? 

Review

  • Why do you think it is important that people vote, and that elections are held? 
  • Do you think more things should be voted on outside of voting people into government? 
  • How can voting be more accessible to everyone? 
  • Remember to submit your activities on our Scouts for Sustainability Take Action Map

Materials

  • A way to cast votes – paper ballots or labelled jars and small tokens to use for voting 

Keep it Simple

  • Talk about one level of government's election process only. When it comes time to vote, you can keep it simple by having the Youth vote for something that has a yes/no answer, or other simple options. Alternatively, you could have Scouters run for a role (e.g. which Scouter will help plan something), so that no youth have to feel as though they’re committing to something long-term! 

Take it Further

  • Discuss how voting works at the different levels of government have different style elections. Learn about how different countries run their elections – what is different around the world? Running a campaign to collect votes for a position you want to be voted into can also expand this activity.