Welcome
A Little About Us
We’re a national, nonpartisan 501(c)3 nonprofit. We incorporated in California in 2011.
We dedicate ourselves to election-related scholarship. Our team includes mathematicians and engineers. But we’re also about applying that scholarship. This means educating the general public. It also includes advocating voting methods that most benefit the public good. We’re all about making democracy smarter.
The Problem: Plurality Voting
Despite popular rhetoric, US elections are not that good. Really. But it’s for a reason you probably haven’t thought of–the voting method. That’s right. We’re talking about the very way you express your vote and how that vote is calculated.
Typical voting limits voters to select only one candidate. We call this Plurality. The candidate with the most votes is declared the winner. But this has catastrophic consequences. Similar candidates split the vote, candidates with broad support get squeezed out, and voters betray their favorite because they don’t want to waste their vote on a loser.
Consequently, we’re left with winners that don’t represent us. Even worse, the candidates challenging those incumbents get artificially low support. And that stifles political dialogue.
The Solution: Approval Voting
Remove the vote-for-one restriction. Let voters pick all the candidates they want. Most votes still wins. This eliminates vote splitting. Broadly supported candidates are favored. And voters can always include their honest favorite. This is Approval Voting.
The solution really is that easy. It’s not that there aren’t other issues with the way we vote. There are. But we find this to be the most impacting. And so you’ll find that we focus heavily on this topic. We’re also the largest nonprofit in the world that focuses on Approval Voting.
We’re in Action
We are constantly making efforts to educate the public. But we are also on the ground. We talk to city councils and legislators. We want you to have Approval Voting.
We Show You How to Help
Besides making articles available to you, we give you resources to spread the word. Here, take these!
Now don’t forget. We make group decisions every day. That means you can use Approval Voting immediately. Involved in a group that’s running an election? Running a contest? Deciding which movie to see? Opportunity is all around you. The method is easy. Now go tell your friends!
Future Expectations
More articles and interviews, that’s for sure. We’ll keep you up to date on our advocacy efforts. We’re also planning the very first Approval Voting explanatory video animation. Exciting, right? And if you support us you can expect more where that came from.
Resources
We’d love for you to join us in making a smarter democracy. Here are some easy ways for you to keep tabs on us:
Remember, it’s you that makes our education campaign effective when you share our work. We’re counting on you!
Note: The Center for Election Science has registered under the expenditure test and appropriately limits its spending on advocacy. We take transparency seriously and thought you should know.
