Town & City Approval Voting Moves Forward in Arizona

From the Center on Election Science:

City Approval Voting: The Arizona bill allowing cities to use Approval Voting just passed on the state house floor!

Our mathematician and director, Dr. Andrew Jennings, has played a key role working with the representative on this and testifying. Please show your support by donating and sharing. We want to keep giving you more news like this!

Hi! We’re The Center for Election Science!

The Center for Election Science is a nonpartisan 501(c)3 dedicated to reforming and educating on the electoral system. We’re a diverse group comprised of an attorney, two software engineers, a playwright, and a mathematician. And we consult with other experts all the time.

Here’s the Project:

We’re creating the first-ever professionally animated video on Approval Voting with our friends at Thought Bubble. Haven’t heard of Approval Voting? There’s the problem. Didn’t know there was more than one way to vote? You are not alone.

What’s Wrong with the Way We Vote?

Our current voting method is the vote-for-one, Plurality Voting. And it is terrible. Really terrible. Can you even imagine a way to give less information? Here are some of Plurality Voting’s epic failures:

• Not expressive, at all.
• The vote splits between similar candidates (terrible for primaries).
• Moderate candidates get squeezed out, even when they’re popular (bad winners).
• Spoiler alert! Candidates with little support can throw the election.
• Fearing a wasted vote causes dishonest voting.
• New candidates with different ideas get artificially low support because voters fear wasting their vote. Policy discussion suffers as a result.

Why Approval Voting?

Approval Voting solves a lot of problems. It’s also easy to implement. Take a look:

• Expressive.
• Works on current voting machines.
• So easy! No runoff or complicated ranking.
• Perfectly constitutional. Does not violate “one person, one vote.”
• You can support groups of similar candidates (great for primaries).
• Candidates with broad support are preferred (better winners).
• No “spoilers”! Voters can hedge their bets by adding another vote for a more viable candidate.
• Vote your favorite(s) every single time without repercussion. This is one of very few voting methods that permits this.
• More honest voting allows candidates to get a more accurate reflection of support. This helps new candidates, especially third parties and independents.

How Does an Animated Video on Approval Voting Help?

Our biggest obstacle is that people simply don’t know that there are other ways to vote, let alone that Approval Voting is so awesome. This video project allows us to explain it succinctly, passionately, and in a way that’s engaging. And, if [when] we get fully funded, we will enter the video in the Looking@Democracy contest funded by the MacArthur Foundation. That entry would help us substantially by increasing the video’s viewership. We also get a chance to fund more projects if we win the prize money.

We Will Launch the Video on April 30th.

We’ll begin producing the video immediately after we complete fundraising. And we’ll make our launch on April 30th, which is when the Looking@Democracy contest entries are published.

Here’s Our Track Record:

We incorporated and started building in 2011. We did even more in 2012. Here are some highlights:

• Interviewed Dr. Kenneth Arrow, who won the Nobel Prize for his Impossibility Theorem on ranked voting methods.
• Over a half dozen articles published.
• Dozens of reference articles.
• Gave talks on electoral systems (LWV, Science Cafe).
• Interviewed the organizer from the Politics and Electoral Reform Working Group of Occupy Wall Street.
• We’ve done electoral consulting for The Harvey Milk Club of San Francisco, German Pirate Party, and various third parties in the US.
• We’ve given technical assistance and testimony at the Arizona State House; New Hampshire State House; Westminster, CO City Council; San Francisco, CA County Council; and Rhode Island Voter Choice Study Commission.

We Come Recommended.

“I heartily endorse the efforts of The Center for Election Science to apply scientific methods to the study of voting procedures and to assess their applicability to real-world elections.  Unlike many academics, members of the Center have been willing to advise election officials and politicians on the implementation of better procedures, which helps advance the practice as well as the theory of democracy.”

– Dr. Steven Brams (Pioneer of Approval Voting, professor of politics at New York University, former president of Public Choice Society) [Steven Brams video on Approval Voting]

Dr. Brams’s signed book, Approval Voting (Amazon link), is among our perks listed to the right.

“The Center for Election Science is an island of common sense, clarity, and open-mindedness in a field where those commodities have been in limited supply. Given the importance of voting to every free society, they deserve our support.”

– William Poundstone (Bestselling author of Gaming the Vote, Carl Sagan, Prisoner’s Dilemma, and Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?)

William Poundstone has also offered signed copies of his book, Gaming the Vote (Amazon link), for us. See perks on right.

Voice Your Frustration. We’ll Handle the Rest.

Now you know the problem and solution. We want you to live in a world where your election method encourages you to choose your honest favorite—always!  We have the knowledge and organization to push this. All you have to do is click the “Contribute Now” button below to get some sweet rewards (see right side of page) and a tax deduction.

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Help push us to the front:

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• “Follow” this page by clicking the heart to the right of the video.

Let’s you and us keep in touch:

• We’ve got our own social media. Take a peek at “Also Find This Campaign On:” for our stuff. Also, you can “up” us on Reddit there,
• Bookmark our website. We put all kinds of cool stuff on there. We think you’ll like it.

Thanks for your support!