Introduction to Approval Voting

What you’ll learn to do: Evaluate the fairness of the approval voting method

Up until now, we’ve been considering voting methods that require ranking of candidates on a preference ballot. There is another method of voting that can be more appropriate in some decision making scenarios.

Electoral College map showing results of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Republican Donald Trump won the popular vote in 30 states (red) and in Maine's 2nd congressional district to capture 306 electoral votes. Democrat Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 20 states (blue) plus D.C. to capture 232 electoral votes. Of these, seven were cast by faithless electors—two pledged to Trump and five pledged to Clinton—for other persons.

 

In this lesson we will study the method of Approval Voting, its flaws, and how voting is conducted in the US.