Thousands of students cast ballots for Doug Ford in a mock vote designed to teach a lesson about democracy.

More than 30,000 students at 254 schools made their choices for mayor and city councillor as part of the Student Vote program.

Student Vote is put on by CIVIX, a national charitable organization that aims to improve democracy by inspiring participation in young people.

Students not yet old enough to vote in the actual election spent time in class researching candidates and following media coverage before casting their ballots.

In the mock election, Ford came in first place, followed by Olivia Chow and John Tory.

Ford had 35.9 per cent of the student vote, compared to the 33.7 per cent he received in the real election on Monday night.

Chow ranked second place with 27.9 per cent of the vote, compared to the 23.2 per cent she brought in Monday.

Mayor-elect Tory, who won the actual election with 40.3 per cent of the vote, came in third among the students, with 26 per cent support.

In fourth, students chose candidate Dionne Renee. She had just 323 votes in the official election, 102 fewer than the student vote.

Ari Goldkind, whose 0.4 per cent of the vote was good for fourth in the municipal election, was fifth on the student ballot with a marginally better showing of 0.7 per cent support.