Campuses across Canada are hosting ‘Vote Mobs,' trying to encourage youth to vote in the federal election, and the first event in the region drew hundreds to the University of Waterloo campus.

They turned up on Wednesday afternoon wearing costumes, waving red and white and making a lot of noise.

Participant Jenna Holz says "It's a really a fun way of doing it. So instead of having it as a preachy sort of thing, ‘You should vote, you should vote,' instead we're running around and we're having fun."

With over 40,000 students at Waterloo Region's colleges and universities, the youth vote could have a big impact on the election results both locally and across the country.

Organizer John Cunningham says the idea of the ‘Vote Mob' is "an organized amount of students here that we're all coming out and showing that we're interested in voting and that we are going to vote and the whole idea is to create awareness on the local and on the national level."

Why young people think it's important to vote varies, but their reason for joining the event didn't. Everyone seems to want to get the message across that voting is important to them.

Cunningham says he was inspired by a similar event in Guelph and that someone had to take the first step and get everyone involved and motivated to vote.

That vote earlier in April stirred controversy when the Conservatives complained of "irregularities" with the special ballot and tried to have the votes nullified.

However, Elections Canada said that while the special ballot was not pre-authorized, the votes were "cast in a manner that respects the Canada Elections Act."

The controversy at Guelph may have been discouraging, but Cunningham says it may be even more motivating by encouraging people to fight.

Even if only a few hundred attend, videos of the mobs are uploaded to websites like YouTube and Facebook, so hundreds more across the country can also be involved.