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Democracy in the digital age means more than voting come election time, says the creator of a site students are using to air and debate political issues.

Vote Kiwi is an offshoot of the Values Exchange site, and both were created by Professor David Seedhouse.

The site for conversation, polls and surveys was launched in Hamilton at St Paul's Collegiate in July.

There will be a young people's election through the site a week before the real deal but it was about more than who supported which party, Seedhouse said.

"We want to show young people the democracy we have at the moment - which is voting once every three years - . . . is really out of date. It's a 19th century concept really," he said.

"With the internet and the online environment which they've grown up with, they really could expect more than that. So it's really an example of how democracy could look in the future."

Vote Kiwi was a bottom-up community where anyone could post about what mattered to them.

There had been almost 1500 responses on the site so far, Seedhouse said, and he planned to keep it online after the election.

"We've got community creating issues that matter to us and, if we get enough people to do that, we want the Government to notice."

At St Paul's the site is in use in all junior social science classes and some senior classes.

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Political site explores digital democracy