Quick Answer
Approval voting gives each voter one ballot listing every candidate, and lets them mark as many as they like, with no limit and no ranking. Each mark is one vote. The candidate approved by the most voters wins, or for a multi-seat board, the most-approved candidates fill the seats.
It removes vote splitting entirely, because supporting a second candidate never costs your favorite anything. It counts exactly as easily as plurality. Its honest weakness is that it asks voters to draw their own approval line, and where they draw it is strategic.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Confirm what your governing documents allow before your board adopts a new method.
How Approval Voting Works
- 1Every candidate is listed with a checkbox.
- 2Each voter ticks every candidate they would be content to see elected. One, four, all of them, none.
- 3Each tick adds one vote to that candidate.
- 4Highest total wins. For N seats, the top N win.
There is no cap. This is the whole difference between approval voting and block voting, which looks similar but limits you to the number of seats. That single change removes the incentive to bullet vote, because withholding approval from a candidate you actually like gains you nothing.
A worked example
Five nominees, one seat, 200 members. Members approve an average of 2.1 candidates each.
| Candidate | Approvals | Share of voters |
|---|---|---|
| Okafor | 118 | 59% |
| Petrov | 104 | 52% |
| Quinn | 96 | 48% |
| Reyes | 62 | 31% |
| Silva | 40 | 20% |
Okafor wins, approved by 59 percent of everyone who voted. Notice the totals sum to more than 200: that is expected and correct, since each voter contributed several approvals.
Compare that to the same field under plurality, where Okafor, Petrov and Quinn might have split a natural majority three ways and let Reyes through on 31 percent. Approval simply never creates that situation.
The Real Trade-off
The honest criticism of approval voting is the approval threshold problem. The ballot asks "who do you approve of", but voters interpret that differently. Some tick everyone they do not actively dislike. Others tick only their single favorite, to maximize its relative advantage.
That means the result partly measures how strategically each faction voted, not only how popular each candidate is. It is a real limitation and worth stating plainly to your members before you adopt it.
If you want voters to express how much they support each candidate rather than a yes-or-no line, scored voting is the method that asks that question directly.
Who Actually Uses It
- Fargo, North Dakota adopted approval voting for city commission elections in 2018, the first US city to do so.
- St. Louis, Missouri approved it in 2020 for nonpartisan primaries, where the top two advance.
- Numerous professional societies and standards bodies use it for board and committee elections.
Those are useful precedents when a member asks whether this is an experimental idea. It is not.
Approval Compared
| Approval | Plurality | Instant runoff | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ballot effort | Tick any number | Tick one | Rank in order |
| Vote splitting | Eliminated | Severe | Largely handled |
| Counting | One pass | One pass | Multiple rounds |
| Expresses preference order | No | No | Yes |
| Expresses strength | No | No | No |
Running Approval Voting Online
Approval is its own question type in the election wizard, listed as Approval, described as "approve any number". There is deliberately no per-voter cap, because a cap would make it block voting.
The one setting is how many of the most-approved candidates win. Leave it at one for a single seat, or set it to the number of open seats for a board.
Other behavior worth knowing:
- Abstain is available on approval questions, so a member can record attendance without approving anyone.
- Write-in candidates are supported.
- A tie at the last seat is reported, never resolved by lot. Candidates above the tie are elected outright and the contested seat is named in the result for your board to settle.
Elections up to 25 voters are free, and paid elections start at $4.99.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is approval voting?
A method where each voter may approve as many candidates as they wish, with no limit, and the candidate with the most approvals wins. There is no ranking and no cap.
Q: How is approval voting different from block voting?
Block voting limits you to the number of open seats. Approval voting has no limit at all. That single difference removes the incentive to withhold support from candidates you actually like.
Q: Does approval voting help or hurt my favorite candidate?
Approving additional candidates never removes a vote from your favorite, because each approval is counted separately. It can only help a rival win if your favorite loses anyway, which is the trade-off you accept for eliminating vote splitting.
Q: Which cities use approval voting?
Fargo, North Dakota adopted it in 2018 and St. Louis, Missouri adopted it in 2020. Many professional societies use it for board elections.
Q: Can approval voting elect multiple board members?
Yes. Set the number of seats and the most-approved candidates fill them. It is a straightforward multi-seat method, though it does not guarantee minority representation the way cumulative voting or STV do.
Ready to run one? Create your election, or compare every method in the voting methods series.
This article is general information, not legal advice. We recommend you do your own research and confirm anything you plan to act on. Where this article states law, the section is cited so you can read the primary source yourself rather than take our word for it — that is what the citations are for. Election requirements also turn on your own governing documents, which we have not seen, and statutes are amended. For advice about your community, consult a qualified attorney licensed in your state.
We work hard to verify every citation against the primary source, but laws change and errors happen. If you spot an inaccuracy, email [email protected] and we will correct it. See our editorial standards for how these pages are researched and checked.
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