EPAS Election Day at USP College Seevic Campus

Pictured: A poster by European Parliament Junior Ambassador Oskar Cylo from our Seevic Campus advertising this year's college Election Day held on the 16th and 17th June 2025 at Seevic and Palmer's respectively.

On 16 June, European Parliament Ambassador Schools (EPAS) and politics students at the Seevic Campus of USP College ran a mock election to see how people at the college would vote in an actual election. Politics and EPAS students were randomly assigned a party, which they had to campaign for in a group of three to four people. There were five

parties that ran in the election: Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Greens and Reform UK. Alongside campaigning for these parties, EPAS students also set up a polling station, with a polling booth, ballot box and posters displaying information about the parties.

The actual voting consisted of two parts: the main mock election and a referendum. The mock election inlcuded the five parties listed above and used the First Past the Post system (FPTP, the voting system used in general elections in the UK). In this system, the party with the highest number of votes in a constituency is rewarded with the seat in Parliament, while parties that receive fewer votes in the constituency receive no representation at all in Parliament.

In addition, there was a referendum question on it on the question "Should the United Kingdom rejoin the European Union?", with two options available for voters, "Yes, we should rejoin the European Union" and "No, we should not rejoin the European Union".

From left to right: European Paliament junior ambassadors Eddie Cadywould and Oskar Cylo, seen giving a student a ballot.

For both of these ballots, there were separate ballots for students (on white paper) and teachers and other staff members (on purple paper). This allowed the results of students and staff to be analysed separately, allowing us to see if there were any differences between them.

As part of the election, every party produced several posters advertising their key policies and attacking other parties. These were put up by the polling station, which was located in the Hub, one of the main spaces in the college which is very popular with students. As part of this, EPAS student Eddie Cadywould build a ballot box inspired by the five main parties, which EPAS student Jessica Obi decorated. The actual polling station itself was organised by Eddie Cadywould, Jessica Obi and Freya Wiggins. In addition, an exit poll was set up using a QR code, organised by EPAS students Crystal Holyome and Oskar Cylo, allowing us to see before counting the ballot how people felt about the election, their main concerns and more details on the trends between gender, age and who students voted for.

Pictured: The posters of the different parties displayed next to the polling booth.

Pictured: The poster next to the polling station advertising the exit poll, created by European Parliament Junior Ambassador Oskar Cylo.

The election was advertised with posters in parts of the campus designed by EPAS Junior Ambassadors Oskar Cylo and Ashdon Casson, encouraging people to vote. In addition, we continued our ongoing project to get more young people registered to vote by putting up posters, both from last year's campaign but also with new posters made by Eddie Cadywould from our Europe Day celebrations. A PowerPoint was also created by EPAS students Bailey Burns and Crystal Holyome for our tutorial sessions.

Pictured: The first slide of the EPAS election PowerPoint, shown in some tutorials.

Alongside the election, Freya Wiggins, Jessica Obi and Sophie Lamas organised a flag face painting event next to the polling station, to promote the election.

Pictured, from left to right: European Parliament junior ambassadors Jessica Obi, Freya Wiggins and Sophie Lamas running a flag face painting event next to the polling station.

The votes were counted by several EPAS and politics students just before the politics lesson, allowing us to discuss the results afterwards. The counting was observed by staff member and European Parliament Senior Ambassador Darren Cogavin to make sure the counting process was free and fair.

Pictured: EPAS students counting the student ballots for both the referendum and main election.

The results from this election will be posted soon, alongside an analysis. Stay tuned!

European Parliament Junior Ambassador and Seevic Student Governor Shaun Gupta voting at the polling station.