Republicans and Approval Voting

Republicans have been burned by Plurality voting on many occasions. In 2002 as many as three U.S. Senate seats were lost due to votes that were cast for Libertarian candidates. And of course Bill Clinton may never have won the presidency if it weren't for the candidacy of Ross Perot who acted as a spoiler for George Bush in that campaign.

Of course Republicans have also won some races that they would have lost with Approval Voting. That knife cuts both ways. Ultimately, though, it is the randomness of plurality voting that hurts the major political parties. An excellent candidate with broad support can lose simply because a candidate with somewhat similar views also qualifies for the race and siphons off votes.

Approval Voting solves this problem. The major party candidates can compete with having to be overly concerned about their minor party rivals since the minor party and independent candidates can no longer act as spoilers. In fact the major party candidates will likely appeal to selected third party supporters to vote for them as well if they decide that such an effort would be productive.

Besides eliminating the randomizing factor of "spoilers", Republicans will also enjoy many other benefits from Approval Voting including:

• lower government spending on elections;
• cleaner elections; and
• better information from election results.

Ultimately, though, Approval Voting is about leveling the playing field for elections. This level playing field will help any political party that can produce great candidates who do good work on the behalf of the Americans voters.