Going from Theory to Practice: The Mixed Success of Approval Voting

Approval voting (AV) is a voting system in which voters can vote for, or approve of, as many candidates as they like in multicandidate elections. In 1987 and 1988, four scientific and engineering societies, collectively comprising several hundred thousand members, used AV for the first time. Since then, about half a dozen other societies have adopted AV. Usually its adoption was seriously debated, but other times pragmatic or political considerations proved decisive in its selection. While AV has an ancient pedigree, its recent history is the focus of this paper. Ballot data from some of the societies that adopted AV are used to compare theoretical results with experience, including the nature of voting under AV and the kinds of candidates that are elected. Although the use of AV is generally considered to have been successful in the societies-living up to the rhetoric of its proponents-AV has been a controversial reform. AV is not currently used in any public elections, despite efforts to institute it, so its success should be judged as mixed. The chief reason for its nonadoption in public elections, and by some societies, seems to be a lack of key "insider" support.APPROVAL VOTING; ELECTIONS; PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES; CONDORCET CANDIDATE.

Spartan Daily, November 4, 1946

Volume 35, Issue 23https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/3809/thumbnail.jp

Transparency rules in U.S. elections need updating to reflect 21st century realities

Recent years have seen increasing scrutiny on election outcomes after accusations of ineligible voters and ballots wrongly rejected. Rebecca Green writes that the current rules on election transparency designed to reassure the public that elections are fair are no longer fit for purpose. She writes that these election transparency rules are based on dated assumptions and significantly changed realities concerning how Americans vote, how information travels, and how election oversight is conducted. She argues that state legislatures should review election transparency rules to ensure their clarity and improve election databases to allow voters to update their own information online

Lessons From In Situ Experiments during French Elections

In 2002 and 2007, during the French presidential elections, several experiments have taken place, designed to test the reaction of the public to new voting rules. What have we learned from them so far ? These experiments are of a rather original nature and raise several methodological issues with respect to their design and to the analysis of their results. In order to assert what can be learned and what cannot be learned, I will discuss the methodological issues at stake. I will in particular show that the conclusions to be derived from such experiments are very sensitive to some details of the protocol and also to some details of the voting rules under scrutiny

Print- Oct. 1, 1969

https://neiudc.neiu.edu/print/1004/thumbnail.jp

Spartan Daily, April 2, 1951

Volume 39, Issue 110https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/11531/thumbnail.jp

Following a disappointing presidential election, Croatia’s government now faces a challenge to hold on to power

On 11 January, Croatia held the second round of its presidential election, with Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, backed by the opposition Croatian Democratic Union, narrowly beating incumbent President Ivo Josipović. Dimitar Bechev writes that with parliamentary elections scheduled for later in the year, the Croatian government led by Prime Minister Zoran Milanović now faces a challenge to hold on to power

Spartan Daily, April 2, 1951

Volume 39, Issue 110https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/11531/thumbnail.jp

Spartan Daily April 25, 2012

Volume 138, Issue 44https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/1043/thumbnail.jp

German election preview: four things to look out for as Germany goes to the polls

Most observers expect Angela Merkel's CDU/CSU to win Sunday's federal election in Germany, but the outcome of the vote will still have a major impact on the composition of the next government and the future direction of both Germany and the European Union. We asked four of our contributors for the key stories to watch as the results come in