Poor discernment in voting for ethical leaders is disconcerting. The strength and significance of moral values as the mediator of the correlation between civic education and ethical discernment in voting for civic leadership was verified. Through predictive research design and mediation analysis of 360 data from randomly selected student-voters, the study found that moral values partially but significantly mediate the determinant-criterion correlation, fully supporting the Moral Development Theory. Future research may address the 83.7% unexplained variance in mediation strength, while stakeholders sustain civic-moral education initiatives to foster ethical student-voters and avert downturns.