In the News
Opinion: Approval voting allows voters to express themselves more fully
This could happen if more opponents declare their candidacy, and they split the vote among themselves, enabling Trump to win with a relatively narrow support base. To prevent a repeat of 2016, Republicans could use an election reform called approval voting. This approach was recently adopted for electing mayors in Fargo, North…
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Opinion: Will Utah decide to keep ranked choice voting?
“While some Utah lawmakers want to end the pilot program now, despite several cities having adopted it, others want to add yet another possible voting system — approval voting — to a list of options cities could select … “approval voting,” which would be added as a Utah pilot program under HB176, would…
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Provo Municipal Council takes another look at ranked choice voting
The Provo Municipal Council took time Tuesday to discuss ranked choice voting as part of the program’s statewide 6-year trial period.
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Legislative wrap: Controversial bills are taking center stage
Originally published in Deseret News | Politics | Jan. 27, 2023 “Two election bills passed the House Government Operations committee, both sponsored by Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan. HB202 changes the threshold for signature gatherers to the current number or 3% of the registered voters of the qualified political party where the candidate resides,…
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Op-Ed: Can STAR and Approval Voting Fix Our Elections?
“My vote doesn’t matter.” “They’re two sides of the same coin.” “If I vote my conscience I risk wasting my vote.” These are just some of the sentiments we hear when talking to people across the country about voting. According to a recent Ipsos survey, 53% of non-voters and 24% of voters in…
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Interview with Utah Approves
“We want to improve the system, we want to change as little as possible, we want to keep it as simple as possible. Approval voting accomplishes that, it really only changes one small little rule on your ballot, allowing you to vote for more than one instead of just one.”
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Election Reform and Anti-Corruption Town Hall Recap
Hosted by Utah Approves | Utah Election Reform Coalition | Apr. 27, 2022 Watch our Utah Election Reform and Anti-Corruption Town Hall Recap! “We’re currently led by a wealthy out-of-touch elite class that’s incentivized by a faulty election system. Today, we’re going to be talking about what caused this landscape, the problems…
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We Are Utah Podcast
Originally published on We Are Utah | Mar. 30, 2022 Imagine an election where the candidate with the highest approval rating wins. No games, no spoilers, no more feeling forced to choose the lesser of two evils. We can make that happen. Nate Allen – Executive Director Nate earned his associate’s degree…
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Seeking Approval in Utah (with Nate Allen)
Originally published on How to Win Friends and Save the Republic | National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers | Mar. 18, 2022 We’re joined by Nate Allen, founder and Executive Director of Utah Approves, to discuss Approval Voting and his perspective on changing the incentives of our elections. Listen now
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Letter: Approval voting ends with happy voters — and deserves a try in Utah
Originally published in The Salt Lake Tribune | Public Forum | Mar. 8, 2022 Recently the Utah Legislature made a key decision, to pull the expansion of ranked-choice voting from the agenda. While this decision has received a lot of mixed opinions, I think it’s important to consider just why this happened. Yes,…
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Ranked Choice Voting in retrospect and the future of voting in Utah
Originally published in The Draper Journal | News | Feb. 22, 2022 Draper was among 23 Utah cities that participated in Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) for the first time for the November 2021 election. RCV is a pilot project approved by the state legislature from a bill sponsored by Representative Jeff Stenquist…
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Innovating for the Next Generation of Voters
Originally published on YouTube | Hinckley Institute of Politics | Feb. 2, 2022 Watch our Director of Advocacy, Ammon Gruwell, give a presentation on Approval Voting at the Hinckley Institute of Politics! “One of the biggest benefits of Approval Voting is higher voter satisfaction. Since you can support any candidate that you…
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Letter: Approval voting can strengthen existing political parties
Originally published in The Standard Examiner | Letters | Jan. 6, 2022 Many Americans are dissatisfied with the political status quo that is dominated by Republicans and Democrats. Other parties such as the Libertarian Party, Green Party, Constitution Party, and the Working Families Party, put in the work to organize and nominate…
Keep readingLetter: Actually, approval voting is more expressive
Originally published in The Salt Lake Tribune | Public Forum | Dec. 7, 2021 I was discouraged to see a disingenuous take in a recent letter on the action by legislators to knock down adding approval voting to the municipal alternative voting methods pilot project, which is testing methods to inform a conversation on…
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Utah lawmakers slam the brakes on a plan to expand alternative voting methods
Originally published in The Salt Lake Tribune | Nov. 17, 2021 A Utah legislative committee unexpectedly killed a proposal to expand the menu of election options available to cities under a pilot program begun in 2019. Utah cities can, if they choose, use ranked choice voting for municipal elections. That’s what 23 cities…
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Utah county clerks say ranked-choice voting elections Tuesday went smoothly, but there’s still an option to be tested
Originally published on KUER | Politics & Government | Nov. 3, 2021 Utah’s November municipal election was a big experiment in ranked-choice voting. About two dozen cities tried it Tuesday and county election officials said the process went smoothly. Ranked-choice voting lets voters choose candidates in order of preference. If no one…
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Ranked choice voting. Passing fad, or here to stay?
Originally published in The Salt Lake Tribune | Nov. 2, 2021 It won’t be smooth sailing for ranked choice supporters next year. Some lawmakers would very much like to repeal the pilot program. Former Rep. Steve Christiansen was working on legislation to eliminate the ranked choice voting and vote-by-mail in Utah. Others…
Keep readingLetter: While ranked-choice stalls out, approval voting gains steam
Originally published in The Salt Lake Tribune | Public Forum | Oct. 26, 2021 You may have seen that the recent ballot initiative which would have implemented ranked-choice voting statewide was withdrawn due to a lack of on-the-ground organization. As disappointing as this may seem to supporters of reforming our election process, there is…
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Is ranked-choice voting too complicated? Utah lawmakers may let cities experiment with approval voting, too
Originally published on KUER | Politics & Government | Oct. 12, 2021 Utah state lawmakers may add approval voting to a pilot program for municipal elections. Right now, cities are only allowed to try out ranked-choice voting — which lets voters choose candidates in order of preference. If no one gets a…
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Approval Voting: Why Force Voters to Choose?
Originally published on BYU Radio | Top of Mind with Julie Rose | Sep. 21, 2021 New York recently became the largest city to use ranked-choice voting in a city-wide election. There’s another form of voting we just learned about called Approval Voting. And for this form of voting, voters don’t pick…
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