Študentské voľby – Simulated Student Elections
Študentské voľby are a long-running civic education project that brings democratic elections directly to Slovak high schools. Since 2016, thousands of students aged 15–18 have taken part in simulated elections that mirror real regional, parliamentary, presidential, and European elections in Slovakia.
Revolware has been involved in this project across multiple years, design and website iterations, supporting the digital backbone of an initiative that must work reliably under public scrutiny, tight timelines, and intense media attention.
The project is organized by a team of active students from all over Slovakia under the auspices of the Youth Council of the Bratislava Region. Inspired by similar successful initiatives in the Czech Republic, Študentské voľby were created to make democracy tangible, understandable, and personally experienced — not just explained in theory.
At its core, the project enables high schools to run elections that closely resemble real ones. Students receive ballots, vote in person, and see the results aggregated and published online at studentskevolby.sk. This hands-on experience introduces them to democratic principles, electoral systems, and the role of institutions in Slovak society, while naturally opening space for discussion about public life, values, and the future of the country.
From a technical and product perspective, the challenge was scale and trust. The platform had to support participation from schools across the country, ensure clarity and transparency of results, and handle spikes in traffic when results were released. Every election cycle also meant adapting the system to a new type of election, updated candidates, and changing public expectations.
The impact of Študentské voľby goes far beyond schools. The results are widely followed and regularly covered by major national and international media, including outlets like SME, Aktuality, Postoj, Teraz.sk, Denník N, Trend, often sparking broader societal debate about youth attitudes, political trends, and civic engagement. In several election years, student results became one of the most cited indicators of generational political sentiment in Slovakia.
Equally important is the human side of the project. Študentské voľby are built and run largely by young people themselves — students who translate abstract topics like democracy, human rights, climate change, or mental health into a language their peers understand. The project shows that civic participation is not something you “enter later”, but something you can actively shape already as a student.
The Študentské voľby website functioned as the operational backbone of the project. It allowed schools to easily apply and register for simulated elections, provided clear guidance for students and teachers on how to participate, and supported multiple election types across different years. A core feature was a secure and structured system for reporting and aggregating results from schools nationwide, enabling transparent publication of outcomes under high public and media scrutiny. Multilingual support and social media integration ensured accessibility, while the clear structure made the platform usable for first-time participants as well as returning schools.
Over the years, Revolware helped ensure that the digital platform evolved together with the project’s growing ambition, visibility, and responsibility — supporting an initiative that combines education, technology, and real societal impact.
Student elections’s team review of our work:
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