St. Louis, MO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 05/23/2019 -- After a landslide victory bringing approval voting to its first U.S. city in 2018, The Center for Election Science (CES) has joined forces with St. Louis Approves to advance an initiative to bring approval voting to voters in St. Louis, MO. CES has provided St. Louis Approves with a grant of $75,000 to help fund their political advocacy campaign, which includes gathering signatures to get the approval voting initiative on the ballot. CES itself will run an education campaign, providing resources to help St. Louisans understand what approval voting is and how it can benefit them.

"We're glad that national leaders see St. Louis as a leader in the fight for more democratic elections," said STL Approves petitioners Rasheen Aldridge, Jr. and Tyler Schlichenmeyer. "This is when the real effort begins. We are proud of our broad grassroots movement, and we encourage more St. Louisans to come to our event on June 4 to learn more and support this desperately needed reform."

With approval voting, voters can vote for as many candidates as they approve of. In the St. Louis proposal, voters can choose all the candidates they like in the primary, and the top two vote-getters will advance to a runoff in the general election. Voters can always vote for their favorite candidate without worrying about a spoiler. They can also vote for multiple candidates with similar platforms, eliminating vote splitting. This is a simple yet transformative solution to St. Louis's "plurality problem." Due to vote splitting, recent St. Louis city elections have resulted in winners who received less than 36% of the vote—far short of a mandate to govern.

"It's exciting to see yet another community rise up and embrace approval voting as a simple tool to empower their voters," said CES executive director Aaron Hamlin. "We can't wait to work with and learn from the people of St. Louis."

In 2018, CES worked alongside Reform Fargo on a successful ballot initiative campaign that made Fargo, ND the first city in the U.S. to implement the method. They plan to use what they learned during that campaign to educate voters in St. Louis and bring a better ballot to yet another city.

The Center for Election Science advances smarter electoral systems to improve social good in the public and private sectors by providing scholarship, election-related resources, and informed advocacy.

About STL Approves
STL Approves is a grassroots organization, led by a diverse group of activists from across the city, that has been fighting for more democratic elections since early 2018. The group began by advocating for instant runoff (ranked choice) voting, and then found out that the local election machines were not compatible with an instant runoff. Now they are gathering signatures for a standard runoff election like Kansas City's to ensure the winner has broad support and a mandate to govern—plus using approval voting in the primary to avoid the vote-splitting and spoiler effects that have played a role in St. Louis's previous elections. Learn more at STLApproves.org.

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Fargo, ND -- (ReleaseWire) -- 11/07/2018 -- Voters overwhelmingly supported Fargo Measure 1, making their city the first in the US to adopt approval voting, an alternative voting method in which voters can vote for as many candidates as they approve of. 64% of Fargo voters approved the measure.

Professor Steven Brams, one of the pioneers of approval voting, is delighted with the outcome. "Research on this election reform began about 40 years ago," Brams said. "But Fargo will be the first jurisdiction to adopt it in public elections, which I believe will set an example for other cities and states and maybe even the United States."

The local effort was led by volunteers from Reform Fargo and supported by The Center for Election Science (CES), a nonpartisan nonprofit that advances better voting methods. Jed Limke, founder of Reform Fargo, said their team is excited, thrilled, and exhausted. "Excited because our hard work has been validated by the voters of the city we love, thrilled because we'll be on the forefront of a positive change for not only for our city, but the country, and exhausted because, frankly, we've been working our tails off."

With this victory in Fargo, CES is now even more hopeful about the future of alternative voting methods, as voters will finally be able to see the benefits of approval voting in a real election. According to Aaron Hamlin, Executive Director of CES, the organization plans to move forward with educational campaigns to support implementation of approval voting in cities across North Dakota.

"Fargo voters have chosen a practical solution to the plights that come with our terrible choose-one voting method. They are armed against vote splitting and spoilers. And they've equipped themselves with a tool to elect strong candidates, encourage diverse ideas in campaigns, and permit support for favorite candidates without worry over viability."

North Dakota residents interested in approval voting can visit bit.ly/approvalforus to sign on to the effort to implement the method in a city near them.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Fargo could lead as the first US city to use approval voting and let voters choose all the candidates they want on their ballot.

Fargo, ND -- (ReleaseWire) -- 08/28/2018 -- A local grassroots organization, Reform Fargo, has received official approval after submitting signatures for an approval voting ballot initiative. Fargo voters will see approval voting on their ballot this November as Measure 1. The initiative changes the voting method for Fargo's city-wide elections to approval voting, which lets voters choose (not rank) all the candidates they wish on their ballot. Most votes still wins. Cass County Auditor Mike Montplaisir and North Dakota Deputy Secretary of State Jim Silrum have both confirmed that approval voting requires no special software. It also adapts to current ballot design.

Reform Fargo's founder, Jed Limke, reached out to The Center for Election Science (CES) for advice following Fargo creating an elections task force to improve its voting method. CES is a nonprofit that studies and advances better voting methods. Feedback from CES and input from Fargo residents at ten public meetings led to the task force recommending approval voting. Despite a clear recommendation from the task force and requests from citizens during public meetings, the commission spent the next ten months refusing to place approval voting on the ballot. Following the commission's refusal, Jed Limke set up Reform Fargo to run approval voting as a ballot initiative and began working more closely with CES.

With vote splitting between candidates in Fargo elections, it's become obvious how bad current elections are. Former Fargo Mayor Bruce Furness said, "Our current voting method is the least constructive method of voting and the most common." In 2015, Fargo had a six-way election for a single commissioner seat. Vote splitting was so bad that the winner received just under 22% of the vote.

"Our current choose-one-candidate voting method discourages good people from running. But when they do run, the voting method is so incompetent that it gives results that—in some scenarios—may as well just be random. That's because of vote splitting, inexpressive ballots, and incentivizing voters to prioritize 'viability" over their own interests. We need our elections to be competitive. But competitive elections can't happen when our current voting method self-destructs with the mildest of competition," said CES Executive Director, Aaron Hamlin.

In addition to being simple (choose all the candidates you wish), approval voting has strengths that give it support across the political spectrum. This explains why the ballot initiative sponsoring committee had supporters from within both major parties and local third parties, including Libertarian. According to CES, approval voting favors consensus candidates while it also gives a more accurate reflection of support for third-parties and independents.

Hamlin said, "Approval voting holds a nice balance of favoring candidates that strike the tune of the people while also making sure new voices are heard. That balance is good because we need thought from all sides to move forward. Like a market, democracy necessitates free entry of ideas so everyone has a chance to succeed or fail. Approval voting can help us get there."

The citizens of Fargo will vote on approval voting November 6.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm