The Center for Election Science is ending operations after over a decade of advocating for election reform, with its board voting to formally dissolve the organization and shift portions of its work to other groups.
In an email shared Wednesday that was later received by Independent Political Report, the center told supporters that its board had voted to “wind down operations and dissolve the organization.” Its programs and related work will continue through the Utah Approves Education Fund and Equal Vote Coalition, both of which it said were well positioned to continue its mission.
“Every ballot measure, every city that adopted approval voting, every research paper and organizer we trained happened because you backed an idea that most people had never heard of,” the center said. “We hope you will follow the work to its new homes and support it there.”
The Center for Election Science was founded in 2011 as a nonprofit organization focused on research and voter education involving alternative voting methods. Its work centered primarily on the adoption of approval voting, a system in which voters may support as many candidates as they choose, with the candidate receiving the most approvals declared the winner.
To that end, the center supported Reform Fargo ahead of a 2018 ballot measure that made Fargo, North Dakota, the first U.S. city to adopt approval voting for some municipal races. Fargo began using the system in 2020 to elect two members of its City Commission and continued doing so through 2024 before the North Dakota state government strictly prohibited cities from using the method in 2025.
It later supported a similar effort in St. Louis, Missouri, where voters approved Proposition D in 2020. The measure introduced approval voting in the city’s nonpartisan primary elections for mayor, comptroller, president of the Board of Aldermen, and alderman, with the two candidates receiving the most approvals advancing to the general election. That system continues to remain in use.
More recently, the center worked with the Forward Party of Utah during its 2025 process to select a replacement for state Sen. Daniel Thatcher following his resignation. As part of that process, the party held an approval poll open to registered voters of every party throughout the district, selecting Emily Buss from a five-candidate field. The process was widely publicized by the Forward Party at the time, which called it a “first-of-its-kind” approach to filling a legislative vacancy.
The center did not provide a reason behind the board’s decision to dissolve. Independent Political Report has reached out to the Center for Election Science for additional information and will update this article if a response is received.
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