Learning More About Approval

If Approval Voting is a new idea to you, you might want to learn more about it. A great place to find information is on the educational website hosted by Citizens for Approval Voting. Here you will find a list of benefits as well as links to books and articles about this and other voting systems.

Fortunately the basic concept is so simple -- vote for more than one candidate if you wish -- that voters will need little or no preparation in order to use Approval Voting effectively.

While there are several different possible strategies for voting with Approval Voting, all reasonable strategies revolve around reflecting the sincere intent of the voter. This seems like a simply thing, but very few voting systems are very reliable in this regards. For example, in "vote for one" elections it often turns out that the smartest thing to do to keep an unacceptable candidate from winning is to vote for somebody other than your favorite candidate!

The problem with insincere voting is one of the reasons that Approval Voting is gaining favor. After all, if the idea of changing voting systems is to get rid of insincere voting (like voting for the "lesser of two evils"), then it makes sense to use a system that removes it as completely as possible -- and Approval Voting is the best in this regards!

Please don't take our word for it. Check the research. Study after study shows that Approval Voting is stable, practical and reliably selects the candidate that the largest number of people find acceptable. That is a good way to run a democracy!