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I've seen approval voting up close, approval and top 3 make it to council seats. One issue seems to be domination by majority? For example, let's say 55% of e

I've seen approval voting up close, approval and top 3 make it to council seats. One issue seems to be domination by majority? For example, let's say 55% of electorate is hard left, 45% moderate to conservative. Under approval those 55% can vote for all 3 lets say hard left candidates, no moderate's make it in? RCV, once someone has gotten their candidate in, their vote is exhausted. Seems to come out much better. Still might end up with 2 hard left, one moderate, but that seems fairer to me.

ClayShentrup 5y ago
This is actually completely backwards. IRV favors extremists whereas approval voting tends to find the most broadly appealing candidate. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-4FXLQoLDBA https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-4FXLQoLDBA
- slownews45 5y ago
  That's not how its working here. We are getting near 100% representation from about 56% of votes. The ballot is approval style voting, you can vote for X of Y candidates.
  - pxx 5y ago
    That's not approval voting. If X is equal to the number of open seats that's literally just the definition of multiple winner plurality voting. Approval voting is a single winner system.
  - xvedejas 5y ago
    if X is a fixed number, then it's not approval voting. In approval voting, there is no limit, either minimum or maximum, on the number of candidates you can vote for. If X is limited, then you get something a bit more like plurality voting, since the spoiler effect is in play.
  - jpfed 5y ago
    As others have said, if they're limiting the number of approvals you can make on your ballot, then that's not how approval voting is supposed to be administered. If they're just adding up each candidate's votes, that's not how approval is supposed to be tabulated in a multi-winner context (which is more complicated); see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional_approval_voting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional_approval_voting
  - ClayShentrup 5y ago
    Approval voting means you can vote for as many as you want. It sounds like you're talking about at large plurality voting.
gowld 5y ago
Multi-winner elections are different from single-winner elections. Approval voting doesn't work there, because as you note, people with fewer acceptable preferences get fewer votes.
- slownews45 5y ago
  Interesting, that limitation should perhaps be highlighted. I think the appeal of the simple ballot is what drove adoption (ie, vote for as many as you like, top X win). In California the trick is they treat all open seats as one office.
- xvedejas 5y ago
  Voters voting strategically are known to adjust their thresholds in approval voting to have the largest effect they can on the output, assuming they have some idea of the support base of candidates. That said, Range Voting is sort of a solution to this, and it's expected there that candidates will scale their top and bottom choices to the top and bottom scores respectively.
aldonius 5y ago
Did you have three votes, or more than three? If you had the same number of votes as there were positions to be filled, that's a plurality block vote. Winning slate takes all. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_non-transferable_vote https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_non-transferable_vote > RCV, once someone has gotten their candidate in, their vote is exhausted. Hi, Australian here. What happens with multi-winner single transferable vote is that there's a _quota_ and then ballots for candidates who have reached quota get _reweighted_ (not quite the same thing). This quota-and-reweighting system can (and must!) be applied to multi-winner Approval too - jpfed linked the wiki article.

ClayShentrup 5y ago

This is actually completely backwards. IRV favors extremists whereas approval voting tends to find the most broadly appealing candidate. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-4FXLQoLDBA https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-4FXLQoLDBA

slownews45 5y ago
That's not how its working here. We are getting near 100% representation from about 56% of votes. The ballot is approval style voting, you can vote for X of Y candidates.
- pxx 5y ago
  That's not approval voting. If X is equal to the number of open seats that's literally just the definition of multiple winner plurality voting. Approval voting is a single winner system.
- xvedejas 5y ago
  if X is a fixed number, then it's not approval voting. In approval voting, there is no limit, either minimum or maximum, on the number of candidates you can vote for. If X is limited, then you get something a bit more like plurality voting, since the spoiler effect is in play.
- jpfed 5y ago
  As others have said, if they're limiting the number of approvals you can make on your ballot, then that's not how approval voting is supposed to be administered. If they're just adding up each candidate's votes, that's not how approval is supposed to be tabulated in a multi-winner context (which is more complicated); see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional_approval_voting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional_approval_voting
- ClayShentrup 5y ago
  Approval voting means you can vote for as many as you want. It sounds like you're talking about at large plurality voting.

gowld 5y ago

Multi-winner elections are different from single-winner elections. Approval voting doesn't work there, because as you note, people with fewer acceptable preferences get fewer votes.

slownews45 5y ago
Interesting, that limitation should perhaps be highlighted. I think the appeal of the simple ballot is what drove adoption (ie, vote for as many as you like, top X win). In California the trick is they treat all open seats as one office.
xvedejas 5y ago
Voters voting strategically are known to adjust their thresholds in approval voting to have the largest effect they can on the output, assuming they have some idea of the support base of candidates. That said, Range Voting is sort of a solution to this, and it's expected there that candidates will scale their top and bottom choices to the top and bottom scores respectively.

aldonius 5y ago

Did you have three votes, or more than three? If you had the same number of votes as there were positions to be filled, that's a plurality block vote. Winning slate takes all. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_non-transferable_vote https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_non-transferable_vote > RCV, once someone has gotten their candidate in, their vote is exhausted. Hi, Australian here. What happens with multi-winner single transferable vote is that there's a _quota_ and then ballots for candidates who have reached quota get _reweighted_ (not quite the same thing). This quota-and-reweighting system can (and must!) be applied to multi-winner Approval too - jpfed linked the wiki article.