Approval Voting

Does your vote count? By March 7, 2000, George W. Bush and Al Gore had virtually locked up their party’s nominations for president before 33 states had the chance to conduct their own primary election. Year after year, after only a few brief contests, viable presidential candidates fall by the wayside leaving many voters frustrated and feeling that their votes don’t count. Some believe this happens because we conduct primaries using the plurality method and suggests that another method, called approval voting, would be preferable.

Approval voting Candidates are not ranked. Voter may give one vote to as many candidates on the ballot as they want. The winner is the person receiving the most votes of approval. In approval voting more than one person can win

Approval Voting Although American political elections rarely use approval voting, it is used by numerous universities, The National Academy of Sciences, The Mathematical Association of America and in elections the secretary – general of the United Nations

Example Eight Board members vote by approval voting on four candidates. A, B, C, and D, for new position on their board as indicated in the following table. An “X” indicates an approval vote. Which Candidate will be chosen for the board if just one of them is elected? Which Candidate(s) is(are) elected if 80% approval is necessary and at most two are elected? Voter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 A X B C D