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:
“The approval of the public is to be avoided like the plague. It is absolutely essential to keep the public from entering if one wishes to avoid confusion. I must add that the public must be kept panting in expectation at the gate by a system of challenges and provocations.”
—André Breton (1896–1966)
“It’s not the voting that’s democracy, it’s the counting.”
—Tom Stoppard (b. 1937)