Approval voting is a single-winner electoral system where voters can select as many candidates as they support on a single ballot, rather than being restricted to just one. The candidate who receives the highest total number of approval votes across all cast ballots wins the election.

This simple tweak to the ballot radically changes how political campaigns are run, how voters express their preferences, and how winners are determined. Instead of forcing voters to choose the “lesser of two evils,” approval voting allows citizens to express support for their favorite candidate while also casting a safety vote for a more viable compromise candidate.

As communities search for ways to reduce political polarization and eliminate the “spoiler effect” of third-party candidates, alternative voting systems have moved from theoretical political science debates into actual American voting booths.

The Mechanics of an Approval Voting Ballot #

In a standard plurality election—the system used in the vast majority of U.S. elections—the ballot instructions read: “Vote for one candidate.”

Under an approval voting system, the instructions simply read: “Vote for one or more.” or “Vote for all candidates you approve of.”

The ballot itself looks almost identical to a traditional plurality ballot. Next to each candidate’s name is a bubble or a checkbox. However, unlike plurality voting, where checking more than one bubble ruins the ballot (an “overvote”), an approval ballot allows you to fill in as many bubbles as you want.

How the Votes Are Counted #

The counting process is straightforward and transparent:

1. Every “approval” checkmark is treated as a single vote for that candidate.
2. The total number of approval votes is summed for each candidate.
3. The candidate with the highest overall number of approvals is declared the winner.

Because voters can select multiple candidates, the total number of approvals cast in an election will exceed the total number of voters. For example, in an election with 10,000 voters, candidate A might receive 6,500 approval votes, candidate B might receive 4,500, and candidate C might receive 2,000. Candidate A would win the election with 65% approval.

A Practical Example: Plurality vs. Approval Voting #

To understand why advocates champion this system, it is helpful to look at a hypothetical mayoral election with three candidates:

• Alice (Progressive): Deeply loved by a passionate base of progressive voters (40% of the electorate).
• Bob (Moderate): A centrist candidate who is acceptable to almost everyone (the second choice of both Alice’s and Charlie’s supporters).
• Charlie (Conservative): Supported by a loyal base of conservative voters (35% of the electorate).

Scenario 1: The Traditional Plurality Election #

Under a standard “vote-for-one” plurality system, the results would look like this:

• Alice: 40%
• Charlie: 35%
• Bob: 25%

Winner: Alice.

Even though Alice is strongly disliked by the 60% of voters who supported Charlie and Bob, she wins the election because the moderate and conservative vote was split. In this scenario, Bob is a victim of the “spoiler effect,” and the community is left with a highly polarizing leader whom the majority of the city does not support. If you want to see how these dynamics play out in traditional polling before alternative systems take hold, you can check the latest trends on Election Tracker.

Scenario 2: The Approval Voting Election #

Now, let’s run the same election using approval voting. Voters are allowed to check the box for any candidate they would be satisfied seeing in office:

• Progressively minded voters approve of Alice (their favorite) and Bob (the acceptable moderate).
• Conservatively minded voters approve of Charlie (their favorite) and Bob (the acceptable moderate).
• Moderate voters approve only of Bob.

When the ballots are counted, the results look like this:

• Bob: 85% approval (approved by progressives, conservatives, and moderates)
• Alice: 40% approval
• Charlie: 35% approval

Winner: Bob.

By allowing voters to approve of multiple candidates, the system identifies the candidate with the broadest consensus. Bob wins because he is the candidate who best represents the collective agreement of the entire electorate, rather than just a passionate plurality.

Approval Voting vs. Ranked-Choice Voting #

Approval voting is often compared to Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV), also known as instant-runoff voting. While both systems aim to solve the spoiler effect and find consensus winners, they do so through different mechanisms.

Under Ranked-Choice Voting, voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, the last-place candidate is eliminated, and their votes are redistributed based on their supporters’ second choices. This process repeats until someone secure a majority.

Approval voting bypasses this multi-round calculation entirely. While RCV allows you to say “I like Candidate A best, but Candidate B is my second choice,” approval voting only allows you to say “I accept both Candidate A and Candidate B.”

While approval voting loses the nuance of ranking, it gains massive advantages in simplicity, transparency, and ease of implementation. While approval voting gauges a binary acceptance, tracking traditional presidential approval ratings offers a different window into public sentiment. You can easily monitor these fluctuating trends and national approval numbers via the Election Tracker platform.

The Pros and Cons of Approval Voting #

Like any electoral system, approval voting has distinct advantages and potential drawbacks.

Advantages #

1. Eliminates the Spoiler Effect: Voters no longer have to worry about “wasting” their vote on a third-party or independent candidate. They can vote for their favorite candidate and their preferred mainstream candidate, ensuring their vote still influences the final outcome.
2. Encourages Positive Campaigns: Under approval voting, candidates must appeal to a wider audience. Attacking an opponent can alienate that opponent’s supporters, whose approval votes you might need to win. Campaigns tend to focus more on coalition-building and positive messaging.
3. Simplicity and Low Cost: Because approval ballots are mathematically identical to traditional ballots (they just remove the restriction on how many boxes can be checked), they can run on almost any existing voting machine. This saves municipalities millions of dollars in software and hardware upgrades.
4. Higher Voter Turnout and Lower Ballot Spoilage: Complex ballots, such as those used in Ranked-Choice Voting, can lead to voter confusion and spoiled ballots (where a ballot is discarded due to an error). Approval ballots are intuitive and virtually eliminate accidental overvoting.

Disadvantages #

1. No Preference Distinction: The primary critique of approval voting is that it treats all approved candidates equally. If a voter intensely prefers Candidate A but finds Candidate B barely tolerable, checking both boxes gives both candidates equal weight toward winning.
2. The “Bullet Voting” Strategy: If a candidate’s supporters realize that approving a second-choice candidate might cause their favorite candidate to lose, they may choose to “bullet vote”—only approving their top choice. If too many voters do this, the election effectively devolves back into a standard plurality election.
3. The Compromise Candidate Trap: There is a theoretical risk that approval voting can elect a candidate who is everyone’s second choice but no one’s passionate first choice. Critics argue this could lead to uninspiring, middle-of-the-road governance lacking a strong mandate.

Where Is Approval Voting Used? #

Approval voting has transitioned from a theoretical model championed by political scientists to a real-world election system used in several U.S. cities.

• Fargo, North Dakota: In November 2018, Fargo became the first U.S. city to adopt approval voting for its municipal elections, passing the measure with 63.5% of the vote. The system was first used in June 2020 to elect city commissioners.
• St. Louis, Missouri: In November 2020, St. Louis voters approved Proposition D, which established a nonpartisan approval voting system for municipal offices (including mayor and board of aldermen). Under this system, St. Louis uses approval voting in a primary to narrow the field down to the top two candidates, who then face off in a traditional general election runoff.

As alternative voting systems gain traction in local jurisdictions, prediction markets often shift to reflect new candidate viability. To stay on top of these real-time market shifts alongside traditional poll data, try downloading the Election Tracker app.

Outside of government, approval voting is widely used by professional, scientific, and academic societies. Organizations like the American Mathematical Society (AMS), the Social Choice and Welfare Society, and the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) use approval voting to elect their leadership because of its mathematical efficiency and fairness.

Frequently Asked Questions #

Can I vote for every candidate on an approval voting ballot? #

Yes, you are technically allowed to vote for every candidate on the ballot. However, doing so is counterproductive. If you approve of everyone, your votes cancel each other out, and you fail to give any candidate an advantage over the others. To maximize your ballot’s impact, you should only approve of candidates you genuinely want to see in office.

How does approval voting prevent the spoiler effect? #

In standard voting, supporting a minor-party candidate (like a Green or Libertarian party candidate) can “spoil” the election by pulling votes away from the major-party candidate who is closest to your ideology, inadvertently helping your least favorite candidate win. Under approval voting, you can safely vote for the minor-party candidate and your preferred major-party candidate. If the minor-party candidate doesn’t win, your vote still directly helps the major-party candidate beat the opponent you dislike.

Does approval voting require new voting machines? #

No. One of the greatest benefits of approval voting is that it uses existing voting machinery. Traditional voting machines are already programmed to count “choose-any” or multi-seat races (such as electing three school board members from a list of five). Implementing approval voting simply requires configuring a single-seat election to use this pre-existing “choose-any” logic.