Fargo Considers Whether to Turn Local Elections into a Voting System of Likes (and Dislikes)

““It's called "approval voting," and residents of Fargo (population: 120,000) are being asked in a ballot initiative if they'd like to be the first municipality in the United States to try it.

Rather than simply voting for one candidate, voters in this system are asked to approve or oppose each person on the ballot. The votes are all tallied, and the candidate with the most approval votes is declared the winner. Much like Maine's ranked-choice instant runoff voting system, this approach doesn't lock voters into supporting a single candidate. It thus allows voters to support third-party and independent candidates if they like them, without having to "throw their vote away" or spoil the chances of a major-party candidate they also support.

Approval voting is a pet project of The Center for Election Science, and the group has been involved in the education campaign in Fargo running up to the election. Polls show that support for this change is high, twice that of those who oppose the change. But more than a third of those polled say that they are undecided, so the center has some work ahead.””
     — Scott Shackford

Tags: Fargo ∙ election ∙ Scott Shackford ∙ approval voting, ∙ candidate ∙ approval ∙ Maine ∙ alternative voting ∙ ranked-choice ∙ The Center for Election Science