Approval voting is a single-winner voting system used for elections. Each voter may vote for (or 'approve' of) as many of the candidates as the voter wishes. The winner is the candidate receiving the most votes. Each voter may vote for any combination of candidates and may give each candidate at most one vote. Approval voting treats each candidate as an essentially separate question, "Do you approve of this person for the job?" Each voter may cast one vote per candidate, either for or against, and whoever receives the most 'Yes' votes wins.
The system was described in 1976 by Guy Ottewell and also by Robert J. Weber, who coined the term "approval voting." It was more fully published in 1978 by political scientist Steven Brams and mathematician Peter Fishburn.
Read more about Approval Voting: Theory, Uses, Effect On Elections, Compliance With Voting System Criteria, Other Issues and Comparisons, Multiple Winners, Ballot Types
Famous quotes containing the words approval and/or voting:
“You know that your toddler needed love and approval but he often seemed not to care whether he got it or not and never seemed to know how to earn it. Your pre-school child is positively asking you to tell him what does and does not earn approval, so he is ready to learn any social refinement of being human which you will teach him....He knows now that he wants your love and he has learned how to ask for it.”
—Penelope Leach (20th century)
“Common sense should tell us that reading is the ultimate weapon—destroying ignorance, poverty and despair before they can destroy us. A nation that doesn’t read much doesn’t know much. And a nation that doesn’t know much is more likely to make poor choices in the home, the marketplace, the jury box and the voting booth...The challenge, therefore, is to convince future generations of children that carrying a book is more rewarding than carrying guns.”
—Jim Trelease (20th century)