FAQs
What is Approval Voting?
“So, who did you vote for President?” Right now, if you asked someone this question, you would expect them to answer with one name. Our current voting system, called ‘plurality voting,’ requires that each voter select only one candidate to cast their vote for. However, this is often not ideal. You may have a favorite…
Keep readingWhat’s wrong with the system we have? What about other alternatives?
Plurality voting has many problems but perhaps most important is that the ‘choose one’ system does not elect representative candidates. A candidate should represent, through views and actions, the opinions and preferences of the voters in their area. The current system fails to achieve that by encouraging candidates to aim for the largest voting block…
Keep readingHow Does Approval Voting Work?
Approval voting is incredibly simple: Choose all of the candidates you like and the candidate with the most votes wins.
Keep readingDoes Approval Voting violate ‘One-person, One-vote’?
The concept of One-person, One-vote was established to guarantee that no voter had more or less weight to their vote than any other voter. Approval Voting does not break this rule. Approval Voting is asking every voter to give a “Yes” or “No” for every candidate. Each voter has the same choices in front of…
Keep readingWhat is the scope of the change you’re proposing?
Utah Approves aims to pilot Approval Voting as an option in our local elections, like city council and races for mayor.
Keep readingWouldn’t people still only vote for their favorite?
This question refers to strategic voting, or where voters consider more than just their preferences. Approval Voting has proven to be extremely resistant to strategic voting in both real-world elections and mathematical simulations. This is because in Approval Voting there is no punishment for choosing your preferences. In some cases, you may only have one…
Keep readingHow is this different from Ranked-Choice Voting?
Approval voting simply allows voters to vote for as many candidates as they wish, and the candidate with the most votes wins. Approval voting is simpler and cheaper than RCV and counts all of your preferences when votes are totaled.
Keep reading