The Comox Valley student vote saw a close race between Liberal Don McRae and the NDP's Kassandra Dycke — with McRae winning by a mere 33 votes.
Twelve Comox Valley elementary and secondary schools participated in Student Vote B.C., and 1,830 student votes were cast in the Comox Valley riding, according to Student Vote B.C.'s website.
McRae received 646 votes (35.3 per cent), Dycke received 613 (33.5 per cent), the Greens' Chris Aikman received 424 (23 per cent) and the Conservatives' Diane Hoffmann received 147 (eight per cent).
Student Vote B.C. is a parallel election program designed to engage underage students in the democratic process.
While the student vote was similar to the adult vote in the Comox Valley, the provincial student vote saw an NDP majority with a Liberal opposition — with more than 100,000 votes reported from 690 schools throughout the province.
The NDP won 54 seats, the Liberals won 20, the Greens won eight and three independent candidates won seats, while the Conservatives did not receive a seat.
According to Student Vote B.C.'s website, students have voted for the same governing party as adults in 16 of 19 elections.
In the Comox Valley, Mark R. Isfeld Secondary had the highest turnout of voting students with 646 ballots cast out of 950 votes requested. The school saw Dycke as the winner with 223 votes to McRae's 214.
École Puntledge Park Elementary saw the second highest number of student votes with a whopping 200 ballots of 235 requested. It also voted Dycke as the winner with 104 votes to McRae's 62.
G.P. Vanier Secondary saw the third-highest number of students cast their ballots with 195 votes cast, though requested votes for the school was by far the highest, sitting at 1,200 votes. McRae was voted in by Vanier students with 82 votes. Dycke and Aikman split the vote here with 54 votes for Dycke and 50 for Aikman.
Aspen Park, Arden, Huband Park, Airport, Queneesh, Courtenay and École Robb Road elementary schools also participated, as did L’école Au-cœur-de-l’île and Comox Valley Christian School.
For more information, including a breakdown of votes by school, visit www.studentvote.ca/bc2013.