The vote will demonstrate a new model for open, verifiable, voter-driven democracy in Utah
11/11/2025 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Forward Party of Utah announced today that it will use Approval Voting and a secure online ballot administered by Secure Internet Voting (SIV) to conduct the replacement vote for Senator Daniel Thatcher, following the announcement of his upcoming retirement from the Utah State Senate.
All registered voters residing in Senate District 11, regardless of party affiliation, will be eligible to participate in this first-of-its-kind open election.
Approval Voting
Approval Voting allows voters to select (“approve”) any and all candidates they support. The candidate with the most approvals wins.
- Unlike Plurality or “First-Past-the-Post” voting, where voters may only choose one candidate and risk splitting the vote, Approval Voting lets voters back more than one candidate.
- Unlike Ranked-Choice Voting, which asks voters to order candidates by preference and involves multi-round tabulations, Approval Voting offers a simple yes/no choice for each candidate. Advocates say this produces clear results that reflect the broadest consensus of the electorate.
Approval Voting is already proven successful in St. Louis, MO where it has been used for municipal races since 2021. The Center for Election Science is the national nonpartisan institution driving the research and advocacy for this reform.
Senator Thatcher has been a long-time advocate of Approval voting:
“This vote being conducted by the Forward Party has the best chance of bringing accountability back to the very people who should decide elections: the citizens of the district. It is my duty to them, over party power, that led me to the Forward Party. The Forward Party is rewarding my trust with the respect they are showing to my constituents.
“Approval Voting is the best voting method I have seen in years of searching for a better way to truly get to the heart of representation. It’s simple, easy to administer, and whoever gets the most votes wins. So does the public.”
Forward Utah believes this experiment with Approval Voting will provide additional data to help contrast and contextualize the outcomes of Utah’s municipal Ranked-Choice Voting pilot program, which expires this year.
Secure Internet Voting (SIV)
The voting process will be administered by Secure Internet Voting (siv.org), a US-based provider of secure, independently verifiable online elections. SIV acts as the National Forward Party’s preferred voting platform, and has already run several other successful votes throughout the U.S., including a special congressional primary in Utah.
Citing the importance of building credibility among election security experts as their top priority, SIV has been openly tested in cybersecurity and academic settings. It provides an easy-to-use interface while allowing every voter to confirm that their ballot was recorded and counted accurately.
The vote is scheduled to take place over several days in the second week of December. All registered voters in the district will receive a mailer with instructions on how to participate. Community members are encouraged to visit 11chooses.com to stay informed as additional details about the process become available.
Impact
Phil Boileau, spokesperson for the Forward Party of Utah, offers this quote:
“The Forward Party hopes to deliver to the people of District 11 a senator who truly represents them. Someone whose ideas aren’t bound by the confines of a restrictive two-party system or the same old toxic ‘us vs. them’ mentality that stifles our ability to do the work of government. We’re trying an election mechanism to match.
“We’re also leaning into the national implications of this experiment in election reform. We look forward to working with SIV, The Center for Election Science and a coalition of election reform advocacy groups to develop research and a replicable model based on the example we’re setting here in Utah that election officials across the country can implement.”
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Visit 11chooses.com for more information.
Visit utahforwardparty.org/open_process_20251022 for the original press release.
