( NewsNation) — A city in Alaska is preparing to become the first in the United States to allow voters to cast ballots from their smartphones in its upcoming municipal election.

While too much shouldn't be made out of off-year elections, today's will be the first major electoral sign of the political mood and what voters think of the president.

Anchorage will experiment with internet voting in local elections, betting that its ease and security will win over voters even in an era of election conspiracy theories.

Alaska is a reliably Republican state, giving President Donald Trump double-digit victories in each of his three presidential bids. However, Democrats are eyeing its Senate race as a potential flip opportunity in the 2026 midterms, particularly if the president’s approval rating remains low next November.

The largest city in Alaska is about to undertake an experiment that feels both inevitable and impossibly futuristic in an era of pervasive mistrust toward elections: allowing all voters to cast ballots from their smartphones.

The Democratic Party so far has fielded a single candidate: former Anchorage state Sen. Tom Begich. He has promised he would drop out of the race if former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola — a Democrat who lost reelection last year to Begich’s Republican nephew Nick Begich III — enters the governor’s race.

Alaskans enacted the state’s existing elections system via a ballot measure in 2020, and a repeal measure last year failed by only 737 votes out of 320,985 cast. Proponents of the repeal vowed at that time to renew their effort and began gathering signatures in February to force another vote.

A group seeking to repeal Alaska’s ranked choice voting and open primary system says it has gathered enough signatures to put the repeal question on the 2026 ballot. The group formed after the 2024 election,

If adopted, Juneau would become the first major city in Alaska to adopt ranked choice voting for municipal elections.

Anchorage election administrator Liz Edwards said the voting system has been in place since April, and was not a “first of its scale” experiment the city was about to conduct, as the Times reported.

As Alaskans who care deeply about the future of our state and the integrity of our democracy, we feel compelled to speak out in support of the Citizen-Only Voting Initiative.