Sweden: Learning to Vote Before the Age of 18

Elections before electoral right

Sweden is holding elections these days. On September 13, citizens will vote in elections for the Riksdag, the Swedish Parliament, as well as for municipal councils. In recent weeks, political debates, party platforms, campaign posters, and election discussions have become part of everyday life across the country.

But several days before the election, hundreds of thousands of votes have already been cast in Sweden. They will not be counted in the September 13 election results and will not determine who forms the next government. These votes belong to people who do not yet even have the right to vote.

These are Sweden’s school elections, known as Skolval.

Ahead of the elections, separate elections are held in Swedish schools, where students aged 13–17 vote for the political parties taking part in the national and municipal elections. In 2026, the school elections were held from August 24 to September 8. More than 1,700 schools participated, with over 400,000 students casting their votes.

Participation is not compulsory for schools. Each school decides whether or not to take part in the program. However, if a school chooses to participate, the voting process is organized to resemble the real electoral process as closely as possible.

The Procedure

What takes place at school closely follows the mandatory procedures established by Sweden’s electoral regulations.

Ballot papers are delivered to schools, voter lists are prepared, and polling stations and voting booths are set up. Students take a ballot paper, make their choice, and place it in the ballot box. The votes are then counted and submitted to the body coordinating the school elections. The results of the school elections held across the country are published only after the official results of the elections in which adult citizens vote have been released.

The tradition of holding school elections in Sweden dates back around 60 years. Since 2002, they have been coordinated, on behalf of the government, by the Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society (MUCF). The program’s official aim is to strengthen young people’s knowledge of democracy and the electoral system and to encourage their participation in civic and political processes.

However, to understand Skolval, it is important to look beyond the day when the school’s “polling station” opens.

In the weeks leading up to the vote, elections become part of the learning process. Students study political parties, their platforms and positions, discuss social issues, and follow political debates. Some schools may also organize discussions and meetings with representatives of political parties. Students compare different proposals, ask questions, and try to understand which issues matter most to them and which political positions most closely reflect their own views. Only after going through this process do they cast their votes.

This sequence is important because the purpose of school elections is not so much to teach students the mechanics of putting a ballot paper into a ballot box, but rather to guide them through the entire process that comes before that act.

How Do They Decide Who to Vote For?

Behind this seemingly simple question lies a great deal of work: finding information, assessing the reliability of sources, comparing what different sides say, distinguishing facts from opinions or political promises, listening to opposing arguments, forming one’s own position, and being able to explain it. At this point, school elections cease to be merely a simulation of real elections and become an educational tool.

Democracy, of course, is not a new topic in Swedish schools. In social studies classes, students learn about the political system, political parties, elections, human rights, and different ways of influencing society. The broader mission of the school itself is also closely connected to democratic values.

But learning about democracy and actually participating in a democratic process are not the same thing. Students can learn from a textbook what a political party is without ever reading the proposals of two different parties or trying to understand how they differ. They can know that democracy involves a diversity of opinions without ever finding themselves in a situation where a classmate strongly defends a view they disagree with. They can memorize how the electoral system works without ever having to make a choice themselves.

This, however, raises an important question: what happens when real politics enters the school? Discussions of party platforms and meetings with politicians can also create a risk of influence or political campaigning.

School and Politics

The Swedish approach, however, is not to keep politics out of schools. Schools are expected to be open to different viewpoints, while teaching must remain factual and balanced. “Political neutrality does not mean political silence.” Schools do not tell students what to think or whom to vote for. Instead, they help them understand what they are choosing between.

This is where critical thinking shifts from an abstract educational goal to a practical necessity. When different parties propose different solutions to the same problem, students need to be able to understand where information comes from, distinguish fact from opinion or political promises, and assess how reliable what they see or hear actually is. And perhaps most importantly, they need to be prepared to reconsider their own views when new information contradicts them.

Educational Value

A school election does not provide ready-made answers. It creates a situation in which students need to ask those questions. That is why the educational value of Skolval is difficult to measure by which party wins or how many votes each party receives. What matters far more is the path students take to reach their decision. Do they simply repeat what they have heard at home or on social media, or have they explored different positions, compared them, asked questions, questioned assumptions, and only then made their choice?

At the age of 18, a person can be granted the right to vote by law. But the ability to evaluate information, listen to opposing views, recognize manipulation, or justify one’s own decision cannot be granted instantly by law. These abilities develop over years. Therefore, the most important outcome of school elections is not the table of results published afterwards, but the 13- to 17-year-old student who has already begun asking: Why do I think this way? How do I know what I know? What does the other side say? And why am I choosing this?

A few years later, that same student will enter a real polling station. On that day, no one will check whether they have read the party platforms, distinguished facts from misinformation, or understood the consequences of their choice. That is precisely why preparing a citizen cannot begin on the day they first gain the right to vote. Democracy does not begin at 18. At 18, a person simply begins to bear real responsibility for their own choice and its consequences.