Approval Voting

Systems Guide

Approval Voting

What is Approval Voting?

Approval voting is a lot like First-Past-the-Post (FPTP), except that rather than voting for a single candidate, you can vote for as many as you want. No ranking is involved, so all the votes have equal weight. The candidate with the most votes wins.
It is designed to return the most universally approved candidate, the one most broadly acceptable to the electorate.

Real-world application of Approval Voting

Although as yet unused in any major plebiscites, Approval Voting is commonly used in other spheres. It has been used by the UN to select their Secretary General and by many professional organisations, including the Mathematical Association of America and The American Statistical Association.

Arguments used in support of Approval Voting

  • The winner is the candidate who is most acceptable to most people.
  • The efficacy of negative campaigning is greatly lessened.
  • Advocates of Approval Voting claim that acceptable choices are more important than popular choices.
  • A study by Approval advocates Steven Brams and Dudley R. Herschbach published in Science in 2000 argued that approval voting was "fairer" than preference voting on a number of criteria. They claimed that voters' unwillingness to give the same support to 'lesser evil' candidates as they gave to their first choice outweighed the lower preferences that these 'lesser evil' candidates would get in preference-voting systems.
  • A move to Approval Voting is relatively inexpensive, as it doesn't require boundary changes, or vastly different ballot papers.

Arguments used against Approval Voting

  • It can lead to wish-list politics, as merely sounding like an okay bet is a profitable strategy.
  • It operates in single-member districts, thus it is not a proportional system.
    • Approval Voting can operate in multi-member constituencies, but that gives rise to new drawbacks, such as Party A's candidates being approved by 51 per cent and Party B's candidates being approved by 49 per cent, and Party A taking all the seats.
  • Voters can list whom they would tolerate, but cannot express preferences between them. As a result it can give strange results and is very dependent on voter tactics rather than voter preferences, as you can harm a candidate you strongly favour by voting for one that you merely don't think is going to eat your children.
  • Approval Voting would lead to the election of "lowest common denominator" candidates disliked by few, and liked by few.
  • The favorite candidate of a majority can fail to be elected.