News about Approval Voting

New Approval Voting Website

As a first step towards life as an independent corporation, the Americans for Approval Voting website was posted on January 30th. This organization is a political action group seeking changes in specific legislation to allow or mandate the use of Approval Voting in public elections. (Citizens for Approval Voting works to broaden awareness of Approval Voting, but does not get directly involved with lobbying or other political activity as per IRS regulations.)

Vermont Radio Listeners Learn about Approval Voting

A Vermont NPR radio program about Instant Runoff Voting on January 27th had two callers comment on Approval Voting. The very first caller (Robert Norman, retired math professor from Dartmouth) mentioned Approval Voting as his favorite voting system and explained it quite well. Citizens for Approval Voting President, Robert "Rock" Howard, also got on the air and directed listeners to visit the Citizens for Approval Voting website.

First Board Meeting Elects Officers

The first Board Meeting of Citizens for Approval Voting was held in New York on January 20th. Dr. Steven J. Brams, Professor of Politics at New York University, was elected Chairman of the Board. Robert "Rock" Howard was elected to serve as President and Rob LeGrand was elected to serve as Secretary.

First Organizational Meeting

The first organizational meeting of this group was held on December 15th in Austin, Texas. Eight of the nine attendees agreed to join the group as well as the Approval Voting Discussion List which has been set up to support this organization.

Brams Article Published on MIT Alumni Website

The MIT Alumni Association published an alumni opinion column supporting Approval Voting by Steven J. Brams. The article neatly summarizes the main benefits of Approval Voting and discusses the track record of this emerging election technology.

Science News Article on Voting Systems

A cover article in the Nov. 3rd, 2002 Science News called Election Selection by Erica Klarreich appeared recently. The overriding message of the article was that our current plurality voting system is severely flawed and that good alternative voting systems such as Approval Voting are available.