Approval Voting
How It Works
Approval Voting is a simpler method where voters are not required to rank or score candidates but are instead asked to approve or disapprove of each candidate. Each voter can select (approve) as many candidates as they wish. For example, in an election with five candidates, a voter might choose to approve of two candidates they find acceptable and leave the others unmarked. The candidate with the most approvals at the end of voting wins the election.
Best for: Small to medium-sized groups (up to 20 people) who want a simple poll and don’t have strong preferences.
Trade-offs
Advantages
- Simple and easy to use: Voters just select all the candidates they support, without needing to rank or score them.
- Supports multiple candidates: Voters can express approval for more than one candidate, which reduces vote-splitting between similar candidates.
- Reduces the spoiler effect: By allowing voters to approve of multiple candidates, it mitigates the problem of vote splitting between similar candidates.
- Efficient counting: It’s straightforward to count approvals, making it suitable for quick results even in larger groups.
Disadvantages
- No preference strength shown: It does not capture the intensity of a voter’s preference, as all approved candidates are treated equally.
- Can result in compromise candidates: Since voters might approve of many candidates, a candidate with broad but lukewarm support may win over a strongly preferred candidate.
- Strategic voting possible: Voters might limit their approvals to only their top choice to avoid helping a competitor.
- Difficult for polarized groups: In situations where voters have strong preferences, this system may fail to reflect the deep divide in preferences.