Contact: Allison Sardinas, Director of Public Relations, Allison@electionscience.org

From Texas Gridlock to Utah’s Blueprint: A Tale of Two States and Redistricting Reform

State's First Approval Voting Election Breaks the Binary That Makes Gerrymandering Possible

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – Dec. 9, 2025 – The Center for Election Science — the nation’s leading nonpartisan advocacy organization for approval voting — applauds the Utah Forward Party and State Sen. Daniel Thatcher for their historic decision to use approval voting in a state-government-level election for the first time. 

Just a day after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Texas to use a gerrymandered congressional map that could flip five House seats to Republicans, the Utah Forward Party launched a week-long special election to replace Thatcher, who announced his resignation in October. Thatcher insisted that his constituents have a say in who will serve the balance of his term, and he insisted that it be done using approval voting, an election system that blunts gerrymandering’s power by offering voters the ability to select multiple candidates, with each selection carrying equal weight. 

“When voters are trapped choosing between only two parties, the practice of drawing district lines to favor one party becomes devastatingly effective, allowing a minority faction to gain and hold outsized power” said Nina Taylor, CEO for the Center for Election Science. “This tactic ensures that an unpopular party can stay in power even when a majority of voters opposes that faction. The Forward Party is setting the example not just for Utah’s Republican supermajority, but for every voter across the country seeking a real voice in their government.” 

From Dec. 5-12, all registered voters in Utah Senate District 11 — regardless of party affiliation — can participate in selecting who will serve the balance of Thatcher’s term through secure online voting at 11chooses.com, or in-person. Voters may approve (vote for) as many of the five candidates as they want, with the candidate with the highest total number of approvals wins. 

Gerrymandering prevails because pick-one plurality voting forces voters into a binary choice. When you can only pick one candidate, district lines can force predetermined outcomes by limiting your realistic options to a Democrat or Republican. Utah, for example, has an active gerrymandering case that was initially resolved in the courts in favor of fair maps, demonstrating a clear legal path to addressing partisan districting. 

However, the subsequent action by the Utah Legislature to call a special session to potentially redraw those court-mandated maps highlights the constant political fight required to maintain fairness. This struggle shows how the state can serve as a blueprint for achieving court-mandated fairness and the challenges in protecting it from legislative interference. Approval voting breaks the gerrymandering trap by allowing voters to support third-party and independent candidates without fear of helping the candidate they like least.

WHY GERRYMANDERING DEPENDS ON BINARY CHOICES

The Supreme Court's Dec. 4 decision in the Texas redistricting case highlights how partisan gerrymandering has become normalized in American elections. But gerrymandering's power comes from a structural vulnerability:

Pick-one plurality voting + Two-party system + Binary choices = District manipulation 

Approval voting:

• Breaks the two-party duopoly: Voters can safely support third-party and independent candidates alongside major party options.

• Creates real pathways to office: Third-party and independent candidacies become viable, rather than serving as “spoilers” as they do under our current system.

• Improves candidate quality: Competition beyond the duopoly means better choices for voters.

• Neutralizes district manipulation: When 3+ candidates are realistically competitive, gerrymandered lines lose their power to predetermine outcomes.

• Accessible participation: Secure online voting ensures equitable access by removing physical and logistical hurdles. Voters will not have to sacrifice wages, finding childcare or rushing to a polling station before it closes. The ballot is instantly accessible, making participation easier than ever before. 

"Utah is demonstrating what a functional American democracy could look like," said Matt Koesters, Founder and President of Fortify Democracy. "Multiple candidates. Voters supporting multiple candidates. An electoral system that better reflects the will of the voters. This is the structural solution to gerrymandering — when voters have real options, attempting to rig the vote through redistricting becomes a much less effective tactic.”

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN UTAH (DEC 5-12)

The Utah Forward Party is conducting the first approval voting election that demonstrates breaking the two-party binary:

• Five real candidates, not two: Voters choose from a diverse field of candidates from their community.

• Approve as many as you want: No fear of "wasting your vote" or helping your least-preferred option.

• Third-party viability in action: Forward Party candidates competing on equal footing, proving alternative pathways to office work

• Truly accessible: Secure online voting at 11chooses.com means no time off work, no transportation barriers, no polling place planning

• Open to ALL voters: Any registered voter in District 11 can participate, regardless of party affiliation

The winning candidate will be announced Dec. 12 and sent to Governor Spencer Cox for appointment, with full data on voter satisfaction, participation rates, and candidate quality.

Additional details, including full candidate profiles, an outline of the initial candidate application and vetting process, and how the voting will be primarily digital — thought to be the largest primarily-digital vote for an elected official in U.S. history — can be found at 11chooses.com. 

NATIONAL IMPLICATIONS FOR 2026

The Utah demonstration comes as states including Texas, California, North Carolina, Missouri, Florida, Indiana, and Virginia consider mid-decade redistricting ahead of the 2026 midterms — an unprecedented "gerrymandering arms race" triggered by the Supreme Court's 2019 decision in Rucho v. Common Cause that federal courts cannot review partisan gerrymandering.

Utah itself just resolved a groundbreaking ruling against gerrymandering, though observers feel the legal battle there is far from over.

But gerrymandering is a symptom, not the disease. The root cause is pick-one plurality voting that creates the two-party binary gerrymandering exploits.

"As long as voters are trapped in binary choices, whichever party controls redistricting will manipulate districts,” said Phil Boileau, Forward Party of Utah spokesperson. “Utah is showing how to change the rules of the game — break the duopoly, make third parties viable, and suddenly those carefully drawn lines don't matter as much."

MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES

Dec. 4, 2025 (COMPLETED): Candidate forum Dec. 5-12, 2025: Live voting period — voter testimonials available Dec.12, 2025: Results announcement with participation data, voter satisfaction surveys, candidate quality analysis

AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW

Sen. Daniel Thatcher: Can explain how plurality voting's binary trap enables both extremist primaries and gerrymandering, and how approval voting breaks that system.

Nina Taylor, CEO, The Center for Election Science: Technical expert on how plurality voting creates two-party systems and how approval voting enables multi-party democracy; can explain the structural connection between voting systems and gerrymandering.

Matt Koesters, Founder and President, Fortify Democracy: A former journalist whose experiences formed his unique understanding of how our electoral system incentivizes extremism and empowers authoritarianism. Koesters can speak to how pick-one voting has contributed to the dysfunction in American democracy today. 

Phil Boileau, Communications Director for the Forward Party of Utah: Can discuss implementation of secure online voting, voter response on the ground, third-party viability demonstration, and scalability to congressional races.

BACKGROUND: APPROVAL VOTING SUCCESS STORIES

Approval voting has been successfully implemented in:

• Fargo, North Dakota: High voter satisfaction and comprehension

• St. Louis, Missouri: Vastly higher candidate approval rates vs. traditional plurality winners; voters prefer approval over plurality by 3:1 ratio in post-election surveys

Even opposition validates the system's effectiveness. North Dakota Republican Rep. Ben Koppelman, who sponsored legislation to ban approval voting in his state earlier this year, explained: "When you have middle-of-the-road candidates that don't take hard stances, they tend to be more tolerable to more people, and I believe this voting method is attempting to hire those people for the job."

ABOUT THE CENTER FOR ELECTION SCIENCE

The Center for Election Science is a national nonpartisan nonprofit focused on voting methods with an emphasis on approval voting research, advocacy, and implementation. CES has supported successful approval voting campaigns in Fargo, ND and St. Louis, MO.

ABOUT FORWARD PARTY

The National Forward Party, co-founded by Andrew Yang and Christine Todd Whitman, is spearheading a movement focused on good governance, cross-partisan coalition building, and expanding voter choice across America. The Utah chapter has been instrumental in partnering with local organizations, such as Utah Approves, a coalition advocating for key electoral reforms including approval voting and nonpartisan primaries.

TECHNICAL NOTE FOR REPORTERS:

Approval Voting Explained: Voters can select ("approve") as many candidates as they want. The candidate with the most approvals wins. This simple change breaks the two-party binary by allowing voters to support third-party and independent candidates without fear of "wasting" their vote or helping their least-preferred option win.

How It Breaks the Binary:

• Traditional plurality voting: Pick ONE candidate → fear of "spoilers" → two-party lock-in → gerrymandering works

• Approval voting: Approve AS MANY as you want → no spoiler effect → third parties viable → gerrymandering loses power

Utah's Secure Online Voting: Voters verify identity and cast ballots at 11chooses.com, removing traditional barriers like time off work, transportation, or polling place accessibility. This demonstrates how electoral reform can include both better choices AND better access.

Why This Matters for Gerrymandering: When voters are trapped choosing between Democrat or Republican, drawing district lines to favor one party is devastatingly effective. When voters can safely support 3+ viable candidates, those carefully drawn lines lose much of their power to predetermine outcomes.