Vote mobs have the potential to increase youth voter turnout, according to professors who spoke to the Toronto Star. With about dozen vote mobs already having taken place, and about two dozen more planned before election day, Queen’s University media studies professor Sidneyeve Matrix said the fact that it is youth themselves who are organizing the rallies suggests the mobs could have a real impact. “This one is student-led,” she said. Similarly, Paul Howe, a political science professor at the University of New Brunswick, observed that the combination of real world rallies with social media campaigns is what could make the difference, though Howe cautioned that “It’s possible it’s a one-election phenomenon.” Tamara Small, a political science professor at Mount Allison University disagrees. “Something like these vote mobs or Facebook can reach out to people because it reaches them where they are … but technology isn’t going to change behaviour,” she said.